New Warning on Pesticides Stirs Concern : Agriculture: Some growers fear report may lead to a ban. The study says residues on food may be dangerous for children.

A new national report warning that legally allowed pesticide residues on food may be dangerous for children has prompted anxious responses from Ventura County growers and farm organizations.

The report from the National Academy of Sciences said children who take in unsafe levels of pesticide residues could develop such conditions as cancer and immune and nervous system disorders.

Federal regulators should change the way they set residue standards for children, taking into account their developing bodies and tendency to eat more fruits and vegetables for their body weights than do adults, the report said.

The report stressed, however, that America’s food supply is still among the safest in the world and that parents should not withhold produce from children.

Some area growers worried that the report would prompt federal officials to ban needed pesticides, removing valuable tools that keep farms productive and produce attractive.

Other farmers questioned the integrity of the congressionally ordered report.

“I think we’re all nervous,” said Tom Pecht, an Oxnard citrus grower. “Any time there is a question of health, you want to make sure what you’re using is safe. But if another report was put out by the agriculture industry, it would probably have a completely different point of view.”

Pecht said he nevertheless wants what is best for his family and the consumers.

“My kids live out here where we do the spraying. Would I want to do anything to hurt them?” he asked.

Even as they fear that the pesticides they have used for years may be taken away, growers throughout the county are increasingly embracing newer, potentially less toxic methods to control pests, said Phil Phillips, area adviser with the University of California, cooperative extension.

The Fillmore Citrus Protective District, for instance, has not used pesticides on its 1,200 acres of citrus orchards for more than 30 years, depending instead on insects to control pests.

And at least 95% of the county’s strawberry growers now use predatory mites to help control the two-spotted mites that plague their fields, Phillips said. That compares to fewer than 10% of the growers using such practices 10 years ago, he said. The berry growers still must apply chemical pesticides in some circumstances, he said.

In addition, new pesticides are being developed that harm only certain kinds of insects, replacing less discriminating materials that attack any being with a nervous system, including humans, he said.

“It’s exciting times,” Phillips said. “Things are changing and agriculture is adapting as new technology comes along.”

David Buettner, chief deputy agricultural commissioner for Ventura County, said the use of conventional pesticides in the county has been gradually declining, bucking a national trend toward an increase in their use.

“In the last five years, the awareness level of the growers has increased,” he said.

Buettner also cited economics and possibly weather as factors in a 6% decrease in pesticide use in Ventura County from 1990 to 1991, the last year for which figures were available.

“They can no longer afford to over-apply pesticides when everyone is trying to eke out every penny,” he said. “They only apply enough to control the pests.”

The report, called Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children, recommended that government change the way it regulates pesticides “to provide an added margin of safety” for infants and children.

Researchers who compiled the report, scientists from around the country appointed by the National Academy of Sciences, found that the government does not have the information needed to estimate safe levels of pesticides for infants and children.

In addition to the residues found on fresh produce, the traces of pesticides children take in when eating processed goods such as baby food or apple juice should be considered when allowed residue levels are set, the report said.

In a statement timed to coincide with the release of the pesticide report, the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture promised to provide incentives to develop safe pesticides and to ban the ones that “pose the greatest risk.”

Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said the nature of farming in Ventura County and the nation could change dramatically if consumers demand fewer pesticides and accept higher costs and sometimes blemished produce.

“They and they alone will decide how their food is grown,” Laird said of the consumers.

Laird said Ventura County has a head start with its shift toward integrated pest management, an approach that combines the use of predatory insects with reduced reliance on pesticides. It also includes such field practices as crop placement or plastic covers to keep strawberries off the ground.

“In Ventura County, we are ahead of many areas of the nation in the use of integrated pest management,” Laird said.

Laird said the Farm Bureau supports the need for more studies on the safety of pesticide residues on fresh and processed food for children. He said the pesticides considered unsafe for children, even in parts-per-billion levels, should be phased out.

But if pesticides now being used are to be banned or phased out, they must be quickly replaced with other, safer materials if the agriculture industry is to keep its economic health, he said.

At present the regulatory process to win approval for a new material requires years of studies that cost the manufacturers millions of dollars, he said.

“If the EPA, the FDA and the USDA are true to their word and speed up the process to get new materials, our concern can be set aside,” Laird said.

Joe Dowd, assistant manager at the Bob Jones Ranch, which cultivates 500 acres of strawberries in the El Rio area, said his farm needs pesticides.

“We use biological controls to a certain extent, but we definitely rely on pesticides,” he said. “And the pesticides that we can use are getting few and far between.”

Other growers do not rely on conventional pesticides at all.

Dean Walsh, owner of Purepak Inc., said his is the largest of 27 organic farms registered with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

He has farmed vegetables organically on 1,000 acres on the Oxnard Plain for more than five years. It is not easy to make a large-scale, organic operation work, and his profit margin is sometimes lower than that of conventional farmers, he said.

“But with the right piece of land and the right area, it works,” he said. “Where there is a will there is a way.”