SUFFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Despite the snow still on the ground, Jared Phillip is getting his Portage County farm ready for the spring.
That means moving the manure from his cows and gearing up to till his soil — he stays away from spraying pesticides or herbicides.
"We try to do everything – we're not certified organic, but we do try to do everything as natural as we can," Phillip said.
Herbicides and pesticides are used on a farm to help prevent weed growth.
Herbicide drift, the unintentional movement of herbicides from their target area (such as a farm) to non target area (such as a neighbor's property), has been a touchy subject for years.
That's why Portage Co. resident Sandy Engle is enlisting the help of Phillip and other farmers to look at ways where farmers in the county can thrive — and so can the surrounding ecosystem as well.
"What can they take from it to help themselves?" Engle said.
As a result of that and learning about health issues tied to another Portage Co. resident, Engle is organizing a community meeting this Saturday, March 21, at the Randolph Community Center (1657 Route 44 in Randolph) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is dedicated to promoting the health and wellness of farmers and gardeners, and find workable solutions tied to pesticide and herbicide use.
Engle told News 5 she blames herbicide drift for what happened to her garden.
"That's when I lost the loganberries and they haven't come back," Engle said. "Sometimes the herbicide drift doesn't stay where it's supposed to."
Experts say herbicide drift tends to happen in the spring, when herbicide is applied to crops to kill newly emerged weeds, with some drifts traveling more than a mile through the air.
The issue has been a point of contention for years.
Last May, the White House's Making Our Children Healthy Again report argued that "crop protection tools" such as pesticides and herbicides could be tied to adverse health outcomes.
The executive director of the Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association criticized that report.
“We are deeply disappointed that the Make America Healthy Again Commission would release a report that raises questions that have already been answered about the safe use of pesticides,” said Tadd Nicholson, Executive Director of the Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association, in a statement last year. “This report ignores decades of sound science and could jeopardize the ability of Ohio farmers to do their jobs efficiently and responsibly.”
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
