Santa Cruz Sentinel
By Genevieve Bookwalter
NORTH COAST — In a case that could reverberate through the county, a judge has ordered a farming service company to temporarily stop spraying pesticides that an organic farmer says are moving with the fog onto his field and destroying his crop.
Organic Jacobs Farms is suing Western Farm Services, a Fresno company that provides and applies pesticides for conventional farmers. The suit, filed by Larry Jacobs, seeks to stop the spraying of pesticides that could travel to his field and an unspecified amount of money to cover the crops he says he lost. The farmer who owns the conventional field is not named in the suit.
The pesticides apparently were applied correctly and did not blow onto the organic field, which would be illegal. Instead, all involved think they were picked up by fog, which can turn pesticides into liquid and carry them off days after they were sprayed.
If the courts rule in favor of the organic farmer and orders those spraying pesticides on nearby farms to stop all together, it could threaten the livelihood of conventional farmers all over the county who deal with fog and organic neighbors, said attorney Dale M. Dorfmeier, who represents Western Farm Services.
“What happens is, an organic farmer comes in with small acres in the middle of this intensive operation and then gets inadvertent drift that contaminates his crop,” Dorfmeier said. “Then the demand is, ‘Everyone else quit their practices so I can farm organic.'”
This particular case arose in December, when the dill grown on about 120 acres that Jacobs rents from Wilder Ranch State Park tested positive for pesticide residues. Because the residue is not legally allowed on those herbs, either organic or conventional, the entire $500,000 crop was lost, Jacobs said. Tests this spring showed similar results, and another crop was ruined, he said. The financial tally for that crop has not been completed.
To market their produce as organic, farmers must adhere to strict growing regulations and use no pesticides or herbicides. The field where the herbs grow is surrounded by conventional rows of brussels sprouts. The pesticides found on Jacobs’ herbs is one regularly used on the neighboring crops to fight cabbage maggots and other annoyances.
Tests from the county Agricultural Commissioner’s Office confirmed there was pesticide residue on the herbs, according to a report by deputy commissioner Lisa LeCoump. However, under state code, a pesticide sprayer’s responsibility to stop chemicals from drifting into other fields ends after the pesticide is applied, the report said. As the pesticide was applied properly and did not blow away during the application process, the commissioner’s office found no violation on the part of Western Farm Services.
That’s what sends attorney Austin Comstock of Santa Cruz, who represents Jacobs Farms, for a loop.
Because his client doesn’t use these chemicals, and neighboring farms do, Comstock said the circumstantial evidence is “overwhelming” that they were somehow transported from the adjacent fields. Therefore, he said, those who applied the chemicals should be held responsible.
“There’s a traditional concept in Anglo-Saxon law that you use your property in a way not to damage mine,” Comstock said. “If you damage mine there’s some redress there”
On Tuesday, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge agreed and issued the injunction against Western Farms to stop spraying nearby farmland if the pesticide might carry over to Jacobs Farms. The case will be heard again later this month.
While the case is uncommon, precedent does exist. North of Sacramento, herbicides properly sprayed on rice still were making their way to nearby orchards and killing them, said Glenn Brank, spokesman for the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. The orchard growers sued, and the state responded with stricter ordinances for the herbicide sprayers.
While that case did not involve fog, Brank said it still could set an example to be followed here.
Brank said he doesn’t blame Jacobs for filing suit.
“If people think they’ve suffered a loss and someone else is responsible, they have a legal right to recover,” Brank said.
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Contact Genevieve Bookwalter at [email protected].
