[5]
By Oregonians for Food and Shelter [6],
Last week, OFS convened the last of four meetings between members of Marion County Farm Bureau and staff from the Pesticide Program at Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA). Marion County members initially brought up a variety of concerns around the pesticide investigation process and asked for better protections for applicators when dealing with chronic complainers. Based on these meetings over the last year and a half, ODA has made several important changes to their process, including:
- In cases of no violation, adding clarifying language to the Letter of Advisement and Case Closing Letter to clearly indicate that no evidence of a violation of law or rule was substantiated;
- Adding a self-attestation to the complaint form to ensure that any complainant must formally attest that the information they’re providing is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge; and
- Development of a resource checklist for applicators to go over before an application; this is particularly useful as part of ODA’s “Use Observation” program where applicators can have an investigator present for an application as one way to protect against chronic complainers and concerned neighbors.
We appreciate the time spent by both Marion County growers and ODA staff to listen and respond to concerns with actionable solutions.