Benlate's Bitter Legacy - Carl Grooms
6/21/1991 Tainted Fungicide Withers Plant Industry In Florida by Orlando Sentinel
DuPont waged Benlate war in labs, courts from Angelfire Website
DuPont waged Benlate war in labs, courts from FLUORIDE ACTION NETWORK PESTICIDE PROJECT
9/24/2006 Benlate's bitter legacy by Tampa Bay Times
2/24/1992 Farmers Worried as a Chemical Friend Turns Foe by The New York Times
|
WAUCHULA, Fla.— In a state that produces half the country's winter fruits and vegetables, one of the biggest cucumber farmers in Florida has no crop.
"We have 1,150 acres that's not worth a damn to anybody," said the farmer, Ronald Moye, who used to produce bushel after bushel of perfectly shaped cucumbers, cabbages, melons and peppers on his farm here in south central Florida. Now, he has a wasteland where even the weeds will not grow. Cucumber seeds will not germinate. Broccoli plants wither and die. And he is afraid that the very water that flows through his land is contaminated. The invisible killer is Benlate, a Du Pont fungicide that had been the farmer's best friend in a hot, steamy land where molds and fungi grow faster than mosquitoes. _____________ Florida strawberry farmers, who produce 20 percent of the nation's crop and who were among the hardest hit, say they are optimistic. But at least one grower has seen signs of continued trouble. "I've had a lot of deformed berries the last few days, since the humidity went up, and the production is way down," said Steve Schmidt, who farms 25 acres near Plant City. |
