In North Carolina, a battle is shaping up between the state’s Department of Agriculture and organic farmers who are upset about a proposal that would eliminate pesticide-free zones, but instead would implement buffer areas in between spray zones and no-spray zones. The farmers fear that if pesticides and herbicides drift onto their properties, they could lose their designation as “certified organic growers” for as long as three years.
- KC's View:
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From our admittedly cursory reading of the coverage, this strikes us as absurd…especially because the federal government has decided to allow states to decide this issue on their own…while at the same time implementing new guidelines for organic labeling on a national scale.
You can’t make the labeling a national issue while leaving the way in which crops are raised up to the states. And if you’re going to have tough new regulations about how things are labeled, how can you allow relaxed regulations about issue like where pesticides and herbicides are used?
Makes no sense to us.
