Farmers Using More Chemicals, Analysis Shows
In the eternal battle to outduel nature, farmers up and down California are increasing their use of carcinogenic and other harmful chemicals to produce the richest agricultural bounty in the nation.
The first comprehensive study of pesticide use statewide reveals a widening chemical divide among California fruit, vegetable and grain growers--a cause for both worry and optimism, according to a San Francisco-based watchdog group that conducted the detailed computer analysis.
The Pesticide Action Network examined five years of reports on pesticide use that were filed with the state by farmers and broke down the trends crop by crop. Overall, more than 50 million pounds of harsh fungicides, herbicides, insecticides and soil fumigants were applied to California farm fields in 1998--a 3-million-pound increase since 1994. At the same time, growers of several crops such as grapes, peaches and nectarines were leading the way in a steady movement toward less use of toxic chemicals.
“When you look at grapes and tree fruit, there’s genuine cause for optimism,” said Susan Kegley, a chemist who oversaw the six-month study, which will be released in May by the watchdog group. “But overall, the use of toxic farm chemicals remains high or has gone up for many crops, and the state has no plan in place to reverse that trend.”
State regulators and farm groups don’t dispute the numbers, but caution that trends in pesticide use--even over a five-year period--can be misleading in a state with such varying weather and insect challenges. Back-to-back wet years in 1997-1998, for example, skewed the state figures because growers were forced to resort to larger amounts of harsh fungicides, they say.
The state’s own analysis shows that the use of pesticides linked to cancer grew by 7.5 million pounds from 1994 to 1998, a 32% increase. Unlike the watchdog group’s study, the analysis by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation does not detail chemical use per acre and crop.
Some Growers Reducing Use
Despite a growing organic movement and a shift by some big growers to less toxic methods, the amount of harmful pesticides used by California growers has increased by 5% per acre since 1994, according to the study by the Pesticide Action Network, a nonprofit group that advocates reducing the use of toxic chemicals in farming.
Three decades after DDT and other harmful pesticides were banned in the name of public and environmental health, the use of agricultural chemicals linked to cancer and infertility grew from 6 pounds per acre in 1994 to 6.3 pounds per acre in 1998, the study found.
Kegley said that any constant or upward trend in such chemical use shows that California agriculture as a whole--despite tighter pesticide laws and heightened environmental awareness--has been reluctant to embrace a more earth-friendly approach.
Here in the state’s heartland, a marvel of high-tech agriculture that is home to more than 250 crops, the chemical divide grows ever wider. Some fruit and vegetable growers--grape, orange, peach, nectarine, cauliflower--are using smaller amounts of toxic fungicides and soil fumigants while relying on an arsenal of compost and beneficial bugs.
At the same time, growers of carrots, pears, strawberries, watermelons, spinach and walnuts are using larger amounts of so-called bad actor chemicals. These compounds have been listed by state and federal agencies as posing an increased risk of cancer, infertility, developmental and nervous-system problems. Those possibly at risk include farm workers and residents living near the sprayed fields and consumers whose fruits and vegetables harbor residual amounts of the toxins.
Growers of table grapes lament that one season of heavy spraying to fight an infestation of mites or leafhoppers can disguise all the good things they are doing to cut back on pesticide use.
Grape grower Jack Pandol Jr., a member of one of Kern County’s most prominent farm families and a former undersecretary at the state Environmental Protection Agency, said he has cut chemical use in half over the last decade and replaced synthetic fertilizers with manure-based compost.
The reduction, he said, is partly achieved by holding back chemical spraying until it’s absolutely clear that his beneficial insects are not up to the task of controlling bad bugs. Also, he has found that some toxic chemicals are effective at a fraction of their prescribed doses.
“To fight a leafhopper, we sometimes use a product called Lanate, but at nowhere near the label amount,” he said. “If we use Lanate when the insect is young and we combine it with certain nutrients, we can use it at one-eighth the label amount and still do a bang-up job controlling the insect.”
Soil Fumigants Dominate
More than all other pesticides combined, the soil fumigants methyl bromide and metam sodium make up the bulk of toxic chemicals used statewide, statistics show. In 1998, nearly 28 million pounds of the two compounds were injected into soils growing 75 crops, including carrots, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelons, walnuts and asparagus, according to state figures.
The two fumigants, which kill weeds, underground pathogens and pests, along with beneficial organisms in the soil, accounted for more than half the total pounds of harmful pesticides applied in 1998, the study found.
“If the state could find a way to eliminate or reduce soil fumigants, the whole picture of pesticide use would change,” Kegley said. “Problem is, farmers just love their soil fumigants because they kill most everything in their path.”
As state regulators place more restrictions on methyl bromide and farmers brace for the chemical to be phased out in the year 2005, metam sodium has emerged as the fumigant of choice. Two of the largest carrot growers in the country, Kern County-based Grimmway Farms and Bolthouse Farms, used more than 2 million pounds of metam sodium in 1998, county statistics show.
The two farming giants, which devote a considerable chunk of their operations to growing organic carrots as well, are looking for safer and more judicious ways to apply metam sodium. The compound’s most important benefit, they say, is that it combats a particular soil disease that causes carrots to fork.
“If we had other options, we’d use them,” said Mike Woodfin, a grower representative for Grimmway. “Right now, the whole carrot industry is looking at managing our use of fumigants in different ways.”
Part of the impetus is that metam sodium, a suspected carcinogen, is transformed into a highly toxic gas when applicators fail to trap its vapors in the ground. In November, 150 residents in the Tulare County farm town of Earlimart were evacuated when a cloud of poisonous gas from a nearby potato field drifted over their neighborhood.
Two dozen residents were taken to the hospital complaining of headaches, nausea, vomiting, burning eyes and shortness of breath. The chemical applicator, Wilbur-Ellis, agreed to pay the medical costs and the state is completing an investigation.
No crop in California relies more on chemicals than strawberries grown along the southern and central coast. Nearly 150 pounds per acre of fumigants, fungicides and insecticides was spread on strawberry fields in 1998. Over the past five years, strawberry growers statewide have tripled their use of the fungicide captan, the consequence of storms related to El Nino weather systems, the study found.
Dave Riggs, president of the California Strawberry Commission, said the industry is attempting to breed a new variety of fruit resistant to many pests and soil-borne diseases, but the process takes 10 years. In the meantime, strawberry growers have begun experimenting with alternatives to methyl bromide and metam sodium.
Because strawberries are planted each year with much riding on a single harvest, growers are less inclined to take chances by holding off on chemical applications, Riggs said. One bad year can bankrupt a smaller grower. “Growing strawberries is a very intensive undertaking,” he said. “Unlike tree fruit, there’s not a lot of margin for error.”
Unlike strawberries, garlic is typically grown without large amounts of chemicals. But in the wet year of 1998, nearly 120,000 pounds of fungicides were applied to garlic fields statewide--a 20-fold increase over the previous year, state reports show.
Some tree-fruit growers have managed to steadily reduce their reliance on chemicals while others, confronting the same weather and pest challenges, depend more and more on harsher compounds. Peach growers, for instance, have reduced their use of toxic pesticides from 11 pounds per acre in 1994 to eight pounds per acre in 1998. Nectarine growers showed a similar downward trend while pear growers have nearly doubled their use of carcinogenic and toxic pesticides, to 12 pounds per acre.
Rick Melnicoe, a University of California staffer who gathers pesticide use data for the federal government, said the numbers are helpful but don’t tell the entire story. Many chemical applications take place during dormant or early budding seasons when the fruit or nut isn’t present, he said. Pesticide applications during the growing season often dissipate before the crop makes its way to market.
“The timing of these inputs is very important and not often reflected in the data,” Melnicoe said. “My experience with growers is that they are being very careful in their use of toxic pesticides, and residue limits are well below the tolerance level.”
But Kegley said that the state and federal governments’ monitoring of fruits and vegetables remains in dispute and that tolerance levels were set years ago, before science was able to detect minute and harmful residues.
“Many of the tolerance levels now in place are being reevaluated by the federal government,” she said. “So to say that this isn’t affecting the health of consumers is premature. We just don’t know.”
Grape Growers Lead in Cutbacks
Both sides agree that table and wine grape growers are leading the way in California in reducing reliance on harmful chemicals, a trend that began more than a decade ago. One grower often cited for his innovations is Gary Pitts, who farms 900 acres of table grapes on the outskirts of Fresno.
Pitts’ fields are easy to spot. The 12-foot rows between his vines are blanketed with a cover crop of barley, oats and snow peas--a kind of insectarium that breeds good bugs to consume the bad ones. He uses almost no herbicides, choosing instead to plow the cover crops into the soil to increase the soil’s organic matter.
Unlike neighboring vineyards where the soil has been wiped clean of everything green, Pitts’ land, when a spade is driven into the soil, yields an army of earthworms. “Some guys don’t let a weed out in the vineyard. They’re obsessed with clean, and their soil is as dead as a doornail,” said the 63-year-old grower.
Pitts is part mad scientist and part throwback to the Old World farmer who had only sulfur and chicken manure in his arsenal. His vines are trained to grow in an arbor fashion so that the whole field looks like a flat green rooftop. This way, he says, more leaves are situated in the direct light of the sun, increasing photosynthesis and the sugar content of his grapes.
His yields are often double those of his neighbors, the globe, crimson and Thompson seedless grapes hanging like stalactites from the leafy canopy. When chemicals are needed, Pitts says, he reaches first for less-harsh compounds. It’s only as a last resort that he fumigates his land to get rid of the tiny root-eating nematode.
“We use three kinds of compost to build up the soil to the point that the vines can fight off disease by themselves,” he said. “It’s no different than the immune system of the human body. Before you reach for an antibiotic, you should wait to see if you can fight off an illness by yourself.
“We do the same with our vines. If a pest lingers, that’s when we reach for the stronger stuff.”
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A Pesticide Divide
California farmers overall are using more toxic chemicals on their crops. However, some farmers, such as grape and fruit tree growers, are leading the way in decreasing the use of toxic chemicals. Below are the crops that are grown with the heaviest use of toxic chemicals.
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Chemical Use
Crop (pounds/acre)
1. Strawberries 148
2. Sweet potatoes 127
3. Carrots 68
4. Brussels sprouts 53
5. Potatoes 35
6. Watermelons 28
7. Oriental eggplant 27
8. Peppers 25
9. Cilantro 13
10. Tomatoes 12
11. Bluberries 11
12. Raspberries 11
13. Basil 10
14. Pears 10
15. Onions 10
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Note: The high ranking of some crops, including strawberries, carrots and potatoes, is partly explained by the use of methyl bromide, a soil fumigant that is not sprayed on the edible portion of the plant.
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Source: Pesticide Action Network
