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Mom In Plant City Pesticide Settlement Testifies In N.C.

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The Associated Press

Published: September 11, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. - A woman who won a settlement against a Plant City-based farm over pesticide use this year is testifying against the company in a related probe in North Carolina.

Francisca Herrera, whose child was born without arms or legs, told the North Carolina Pesticide Board she was sprayed repeatedly with pesticides while pregnant as she worked at a tomato farm run by Ag-Mart Produce.

Herrera, 20, testified Wednesday she was repeatedly exposed to pesticides at the Ag-Mart farm. She said supervisors ignored her complaints of frequent headaches and stomach pains.

The board is considering whether Ag-Mart violated worker safety laws. The company denies that and says it will offer testimony when the hearing resumes in November from a worker who will testify she was never sprayed.

Ag-Mart attorney Mark Ash said Herrera's testimony proved nothing.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday's testimony was the first from workers in the case.

In April, Herrera and Abraham Candelario, 21, settled a lawsuit filed against Ag- Mart, which sells fruits and vegetables under the name Santa Sweets. The couple claimed working in Ag-Mart tomato fields and exposure to pesticides caused their boy's defects. As part of the settlement, Ag-Mart did not have to admit wrongdoing, the family's attorney, Andrew Yaffa, has said.

Terms of the settlement have been kept private, but Yaffa, has said the money is "significant." Herrera and Candelario's 3-year-old son, Carlitos, will not have to worry about medical care the rest of his life.

Herrera and Candelario picked tomatoes in Immokalee and in North Carolina for Ag-Mart before and after Herrera became pregnant. They filed suit in 2006.

Herrera and Candelario claimed that Ag-Mart managers did not adhere to seven-day waiting periods after spraying and before sending workers to pick crops. Sometimes, they claimed, workers were sent into the fields the day after spraying. Other times, crops were sprayed with pesticides while workers were in the fields.

Agricultural officials said spot checks found no illegal pesticide residues.

In 2005, North Carolina and Florida hit Ag- Mart with nearly 400 citations and fined the company about $300,000 for pesticide use from 1999 through 2003.

In December, a judge in North Carolina recommended the dismissal of 271 of the pesticide violations. In March, an administrative judge in Tampa threw out almost all of the Florida charges, citing a lack of evidence.

As a result of the settlement, Ag-Mart has changed its pesticide practices. In 2005, company officials said Ag-Mart would discontinue use of five of the six traditional agricultural chemicals known to cause birth defects.

Information from Tribune archives was used in this report.

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