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Beware Of Picking Forbidden Fruit

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

RUSKIN - In a field in a quiet neighborhood off U.S. 41 last week, rows of shriveled tomato vines clung to their stakes, but the fruit remained red and plump.

Posted at the front of a driveway where customers used to pull in to buy produce were signs with warnings in English and Spanish: Danger. Pesticides. Keep out.

But the field is big, unfenced. Eli Mitchell, who lives nearby and has been buying tomatoes at the spot for years, said he thinks the signs posted at the driveway were not enough. He said he saw people in the field, plucking tomatoes from the dying vines after the signs went up.

"They can't enforce people not going in there," Mitchell said, adding that he worries that people might have taken the tomatoes home to feed children.
Florida Department of Agriculture officials said spraying fields with pesticides to kill the plants is a common practice.

"It's called a 'burn-down,'" said Bruce Niceley, the department's bureau chief for compliance monitoring. Growers often do it to speed the decay of the plant and make it easier to clear, he said.

Niceley said the department investigated conditions at the Ruskin field, owned by Artesian Farms, after Mitchell's call and found no violations. Artesian Farms did not respond to a request for comment.

People should beware of helping themselves to crops in pesticide-treated fields because fruit or vegetables sprayed with common farm chemicals could be harmful to eat, even with proper washing at home, Niceley said.

"They possibly could because they are not designed to be put on a crop if the crop is going to be consumed," Niceley said.

Generally, state laws require growers to post signs to warn farmworkers of the presence of pesticides but not illegal consumers, he said. The Ruskin field had "no trespassing" signs posted. Fencing is not mandatory, Niceley said.

"If neighbors decide to go in there, basically, they're trespassing," he said. "The law doesn't require putting up a fence."

With weather, foreign competition and other factors affecting produce prices, more growers are plowing under viable fruits and vegetables to make way for a more lucrative crop or to sell to a developer, Niceley said.

He said his department regularly hears complaints that the food should go to the poor or homeless; that decision is the land owners.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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