02/27/07 Pesticide Reporting Pt 2

Pesticide Reporting Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. On the surface&HB 1946 sounds like a good idea. Require Ag producers to report their pesticide use. But that is already being done and Jim Hazen with the Washington State Horticultural Association says that once you peel back the layers of the proposed legislation it becomes an expensive redundancy and those dollars could be better spent. HAZEN: 4.6 million dollars would go a long way not only in doing a pest management transition program but also in doing research. Hazen says they are actively working to replace certain pesticides like guthion. HAZEN: We are working right now with budget writers on a pest management transition program which is in partnership with WSU and the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission to develop a program to assist growers with the current phase out of azinphosmethyl. And we think that the money that would go into this reporting system would be much better spent if it was targeted and earmarked for that transition effort. But Hazen says there is a lot of misinformation floating around about the pesticides that are being used. HAZEN: There is a lot of hysteria and a lot of misinformation used against synthetic chemicals. I can recite scientific fact, scientific data over years; over decades that shows synthetic chemicals are safe. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.