Trends in Pesticide Use In California
In 1990, California became the first state to require full reporting of agricultural pesticide use. Growers were required to turn in monthly Pesticide Use Reporting forms to their County Agricultural Commissioner. The result has been a massive database (compiled and maintained by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation [CA DPR]). This allowed a comprehensive look/analysis of overall pesticide use in the state and these data can be examined by commodity, by pesticide, by county, etc. Of course there have been changes over the more than 20 years that these data have been collected. During the early years of data collection, ornamental production was not broken down into subcategories, so it was not possible to separate pesticide use in greenhouse cut flowers, for example, from pesticide use in field-grown nursery stock. This made an analysis of pesticide use in ornamental production more difficult. However, this has changed and by 2001 the categories were more clearly defined. Therefore a comprehensive look at pesticide use in greenhouse cut flower production really has to start in 2001.Click here to read further at UCNFA