Farmland Lost to Over-Regulation

A lot of people throughout the state are rightfully concerned about the amount of farmland being lost to “urban sprawl.� Unfortunately, too many of these people accuse growers and developers of being greedy and completely overlook the third link driving this phenomenon.

Faced with laws prohibiting the use of many once-considered safe pesticides, fungicides and herbicides and increasing regulation of the still-acceptable ones, many growers are left with only two real options. They can continue to roll the financially risky dice of crop devastation or they can sell their properties to developers, capture a safe, guaranteed profit and move on to something else, somewhere else. Only a fool would blame a grower for choosing the latter.

Likewise, only a fool would think a developer is in business for any reason other than making money. And, only complete idiots would call either of these groups greedy. They are merely survivors in this capitalistic game called America.

Greed comes with never knowing when to say when--a label better suited for Ventura County’s Environmental Defense Center and the 30 east Ventura residents who got it to convince the Department of Pesticide Regulation to revise its “buffer zone� standards.

Neo-urbanites “sprawl� next door to farmland, then quickly forget about what growers often have to do to maximize profits from their crops. Are they unaware that their actions actually cause the farmland-loss spiral to circle that much more viciously?

And, not satisfied with convincing area grower Raul Garcia to opt out of a 12th year of strawberry production, the EDC now wants to take its message statewide, possibly making the problem of farmland loss worse as even more farmers become convinced that their best option may be selling their lands.

With conflicting studies leaving us with little convincing evidence regarding the dangers or lack thereof in methyl bromide, maybe we would all be better off if those who “get sick� after its applications would leave their once-farmland, now-suburban homes for the, maybe, dozen days each year that growers devote to protecting their investments.

BRUCE ROLAND

Ojai