Pesticide report shows importance of agriculture

Areport last week from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation underscores the importance of agriculture and the role it plays in providing a safe supply of food.

The annual report of pesticides residues found no residues on most produce grown in California, and only very few and low levels of pesticide residues.

None of the levels found were enough to be a risk to public health.

The annual analysis of pesticides and produce also included some of the imported produce sold in California and while most were clean of any dangerous levels of pesticides, they were not as clean as those grown in the United States and in some cases, banned pesticide residues were found.

California has the strictest regulations regarding the use and application of pesticides of anywhere in the world. The Tulare County Agriculture Commissioner’s office is charged with seeing that growers are well aware of the regulations and that they follow the regulations. The office has reported few issues. A safe food supply is critical to everyone.

We all eat and enjoy good fruits and vegetables, especially those grown right here in the No. 1 agricultural county in the world.

There are more than 150 farm commodities produced here — from milk to collards. It is the cleanest, healthiest food produced in the world.

What the report highlights is the need for agriculture to continue in this fertile valley.

Today, there are threats to farming from all sides — environmentalists, government and water managers. The ability of farmers to produce their products is greatly strained and the threats keep coming and are reaching a point when many in agriculture — at least here — may abandon their farms.

Water, as pointed out by Tulare County Agricultural Commissioner Marilyn Kinoshita, is key to farming surviving.

Without it, the farms go away and there are those in the state Legislature who want to cut water to farmers. Apparently, they don’t realize water is what makes crops grow.

No state grown crops increase the risk to consumers of imported crops which are not clean of pesticides.

In order to ensure a safe food supply, we need to support agriculture in this state, not try to plow it under.