You make some good points, Dice. I admit that I went out to the shed and looked at the bags of liquid fertilizer to see if it listed ingredients. We use a Scott's product (Peter's 20-10-20) which is primarily used by the greenhouse industry. I do have confidence in the regulatory agencies - I mean we have no choice but to depend on them - but you did give me pause. And I'm still worried a little!
I think I can safely say, Dice, that in my experience the worst abuse of chemicals is in home gardens, followed closely by unregulated, small grower operations like ours. The larger growers are more likely to stay "on label" because they are more likely to have their product tested on a regular basis and they stand to lose a lot more than we do.
I can tell you some real horror stories - for example, when Orthene was taken off the market a few years back, we were left with no control for squash vine borers. A local gardener, who shall here remain nameless, told me that Surrender Fire Ant Control was 100% Acephate 75, exactly the same formulation as the Orthene we had been using for years and years. They didn't ban Acephate, he explained, they just changed the label to exclude food crops. How could it be that bad, he asked, if we used it all those years and nobody died from it?
Well, he doubtlessly went on to use the fire ant poison on his personal veggies, and I admit that I was tempted. Had it not been for the fact that these vegetables were a church project, and I was under strict policy to abide by all applicable laws and regulations, I might have joined him for "one last year" rather than see my beautiful zucchini destroyed. It would have been easy to rationalize in my mind, but I did not succumb to that particular sin
Larger commercial ag operations, and the people that work there, are under similar legal, economic and moral constraints as I was with my zucchini - and they are a whole lot more likely to "get caught" than people like you and me. I have been around heavy agriculture, and I saw them taking great care to stay precisely on-label with chemicals. An error or intentional violation could cost them their job! Just like me - I certainly had no desire to have to stand before my church and explain why I had put them in a legal bind!
Conclusion: The employees of large corporate farms are therefore much less likely to engage in illegal chemical use than home gardeners and small growers like us - because they get checked regularly and their employer will fire them if they cause a law suit. Their vegetables are probably, "cleaner" than what your neighbor gives you or what you buy from an unknown vendor at a street stand like ours - or at a farmer's market (even those claiming to be "
mostly" organic growers).
I rest my case.
Your cyberfriend, Jack