10/25/05 Fruit chemical use survey

The Washington State Agricultural Statistics Service is undertaking a fruit chemical use survey. Chris Messer of W.A.S.S. says growers will be contacted starting this fall. MESSER: We'll be surveying about 780 growers of apples, sweet cherries, pears, red raspberries, and grapes this fall. Messer says the purpose of this survey is two  fold. One is to demonstrate a growers' overall chemical use, and show to the public that they are indeed good stewards of such chemicals in ways to make their commodities safe for consumers. And the second reason according to Messer is availability of such chemicals. MESSER: Washington has such wonderful diverse agricultural commodities and these fruit commodities it's important that pesticides remain available through registration and re-registration to keep the food product safe and acceptable to the public. Messer says meetings between participating producers and W.A.S.S. data collection experts and completing the study should average around forty-five minutes, dependant on various factors, one of which is recordkeeping. MESSER: And we really do encourage our respondents to use records if they are available because that does help reduce the amount of time that it takes to fill out a questionnaire and also helps the accuracy of the report.