It’s Time We All Paid the Price for Nontoxic Farming

It has been a month now since children, staff and parent volunteers at Mound Elementary School and Balboa Middle School in Ventura were exposed to the pesticide Lorsban drifting from the orchard across Hill Street. It’s been a busy month.

Parents and staff, after tending to their children’s or their own nausea, headaches, agitation, dizziness and diarrhea, have learned far more than they ever wanted about the effects of chlorpyrifos, a chlorinated organophosphate, on the nervous system.

Ventura Unified School District, which last year won the gratitude of parents and students by adopting a least toxic pest management program in all district schools, had an unwelcome chance to test its systems for dealing with an unprovoked outside chemical emergency--and found them in need of improvement.

The agricultural community, horrified that children were exposed to drift from Lorsban, has peppered the office of the county Agricultural Commissioner with questions and demands.

The Ag Commissioner’s office, still underfunded and consequently understaffed, has struggled to respond to concerns from all these stakeholders.

Ventura County Supervisors, Ventura City Council members, school trustees, public health officials, the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, the county Farm Bureau and the Agricultural Assn., state legislators and the state Department of Pesticide Regulation have all been asked for help in preventing another such incident.

All of these entities have been or likely will be involved in examining regulations, writing protocols and procedures, educating themselves and others. Many are choosing to work together. But the real solution lies with all of us--the community members of Ventura County. We can divide down familiar lines: agriculture versus environmentalists, SOAR--Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources--opponents versus proponents, growers versus suburbanites; or we can try something new.

We can agree that some chemicals are simply too dangerous to be used around children. Dursban, the over-the-counter version of agricultural Lorsban--formerly found in such over-the-counter products as flea collars and roach and ant sprays--is being phased out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for just that reason.

According to the 1990 census, 29.1% of our county is younger than 18. Each of us has a stake in seeing our young people reach their full potential. Many of them go to schools surrounded by or within a mile of fields where agricultural chemicals are used. We need to adjust our behavior accordingly.

We must also recognize that most growers in the Oxnard plain feel dependent upon agricultural chemicals to maintain high yields and believe that those chemicals can be applied safely. It will take financial incentives to persuade them to try something new around schools. These incentives could take the form of grants or subsidies to those who transition to nontoxic cultivation. They could take the form of state research funds, property tax reductions, price supports or guaranteed markets. (All those schoolchildren could surely use more fresh fruit and fiber in their diets.) It will take creative thinking on the part of our whole community to solve the problems that cross the boundary between conventional agricultural techniques and suburban homes and schools.

But think of the possibilities: Many orchards in Ojai and Santa Paula employ least toxic methods of pest control successfully. Consumer demand for fruit and vegetables grown without chemicals continues to increase. If the areas around our schools were declared toxic-free, growers would be able to benefit from that market.

County support of SOAR initiatives, whether you agree with them or not, shows a deep concern for maintaining agriculture in our communities. It goes without saying that we have a deep concern for the welfare of our children as well.

It’s time to put our money where our hearts are. We must act as a community to ensure that nontoxic farming practices around schools are profitable for growers. A community task force to discuss the possibilities would be a good first step. Mound and Balboa schools would be a good location for a pilot project.