Down On The Farm Trivia Quiz

Answer: Extremely dangerous

Growing vegetables involves heavy machinery, such as ditch diggers, bedders, planters, tractors, chemical sprayers, and for major crops such as wheat, harvesters. Workers must be trained in the proper use of machinery and the proper attire for each job. Our farm used hand labor, so no harvesting machinery was necessary.

The tool of choice was the Ontario 'Cabbage Knife'. Other dangers include the remoteness of some fields, presence of harsh chemicals, storage of gasoline and diesel fuel for trucks and machinery, language barriers (My employer was from China and 99% of the workers were from Mexico; the remaining 1% were gringos, Vietnamese and Haitians), communication with the home office or packing house and lack of training. Of the 200 or so workers on the farm, only 16 had walkie-talkies, and as supervisors they were responsible for keeping an eye on those that had no communication device.

Answer: Insecticides

The EPA now classifies all of the above under pesticides. Workers must be trained in the proper use of the machinery and the proper attire for each job. Chemical applicators, in particular, must know everything about each chemical they use, what level of safety equipment is required, how to prepare the product for use, first aid and CPR, and how to treat a chemical burn or spill.

The state of Florida requires that written records be kept of all applications: date, crop name, time of day, wind speed, exact location by farm, field and row, amount of insecticide. Wind speed is critical as some chemicals drift and end up on neighboring crops where they don't belong. Crop dusting is also limited as the plane tends to hover over a greater range than land level spraying, and can cause drift onto neighboring farms. If crop dusting is planned, the target fields must be marked so that no people are in range of the spray.

The local weather directory from the county will advise on wind speed all during the day and night. Fertilizers can cause burns if improperly used; while herbicides, vermicides and fungicides are targeted for specific uses, they are usually not as potent as pesticides, but can also be dangerous if misused.

Insecticides are used primarily on active, mobile organisms such as aphids, thrips, and mites. Aphids are especially difficult because they live on the underside of leaves and are protected by ants. There is a symbiotic relationship in that the ants herd the aphids like cattle, protect them and harvest them for nectar.

Answer: Restricted Use Pesticides

An R.U.P. license was required for a farm to use certain pesticides such as Phosdrin, Parathion, Monitor, and others. Little by little the most lethal of these chemicals has been removed from use when a safer alternative was discovered. There was a case of two employees on a different farm being splashed with Phosdrin, who died soon after the incident as it was a systemic pesticide that was absorbed through their skin. An individual employee of the farm was required to take a difficult test to get the license, and was thereafter responsible for the use or abuse of all R.U.P. chemicals. Regular unannounced sampling and testing of crops was conducted by the Florida Dept.of Agriculture and Consumer Services. If traces over the legal limit were found, there was a 'stop sale order' placed on the entire batch of the product cut from that section on that day, and it was held aside until cleared by the same Dept. (FDACS, for short). All packing crates had to have the harvesting date written plainly on the outside in red; thus thick crayons were standard issue for harvesters.

Answer: EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency is the primary government acronym, and there are several others involved, such as FIFRA (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act), and FFDCA (Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act), which regulates imported goods to the U.S. The EPA is charged with the safety of agricultural practices, the goods produced, and the possible impact on the environment. Runoff from fertilizers and/or chemicals is a serious problem which can adversely affect soil, wildlife, people, and the aquifer, and in Florida has caused concern for the maintenance of the Everglades as a pristine area. Farming in general has been blamed for algae blooms in some waterways.
DOT is the Department of Transportation, which regulates the use of public roads for farm equipment (Heavy equipment often has to be brought from one location to another, and has its own list of rules). NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, ratified in 1993. Besides free trade, the agency also covers issues regarding pesticide use among the three members.
Many other agreements and protocols exist among nations to ensure a safe and sustainable environment, such as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade.

Answer: True

Anything that involved his digestive or respiratory tract was banned during application. His attention was to be only on the job at hand. The more lethal the chemical, the more protective gear was required, and top of the line was a full body disposable hazmat suit, boots and gloves, hood covering the hair, ventilator mask with filters and goggles. No skin was to be exposed. Smoking, in itself being a hazard around chemicals, involves inhalation which might mix with toxic fumes. CPAs were to shower thoroughly and launder their clothes separately from others when they were finished for the day.

Answer: Alligators, snakes and mosquitos

No children were permitted in the fields. Nobody drank the ditch water, and the farmer had to supply potable water for all employees. Although there was an occasional accident where someone fell into a ditch, this was rare because everyone was aware of the potential danger. Apart from irrigation, the ditches were the best place to go in the event of a personal chemical burn or large spill. We kept large bags of cat litter at all stations for containment and absorption.
In the nineteen years that I was there, nobody was bitten by a venomous snake or alligator on our farm, but the possibility was always there, and the occasional dead rattler would be hung out to dry at times. Florida has three other deadly snakes: Coral, Copperhead and Cottonmouth (water moccasin). The Coral tends to be the most lethal as it nibbles rather than bites, and carries a strong neurotoxin; the others have hemotoxins. As for mosquitos, they have probably caused more death than all the wars of mankind, and they continue to carry diseases everywhere in the world. Florida has a particular mosquito (nominated as the state bird), which is usually called the Tiger mosquito as it is striped and rather large.
It is illegal in Florida to feed alligators as it leads to the gator associating people with food and tends to make them bolder in approaching human settlements.
Each year, over a hundred cars go off public roads in Florida and end up in the deep ditches on the side. The greatest cause of drowning is the occupants' failure to unbuckle their seat belts first. Many people carried strong, sharp metal objects, like large screwdrivers, to smash the side window open if the vehicle was submerging. It is very unlikely that you can break the front windshield or open the car doors in time against the force of water.

Answer: To get free coffee and donuts

Chemicals are constantly changing, and the sorriest state you can be in is not knowing the proper and legal uses of new products. Besides the potential danger to yourself and others, the fines for breaking the law are prohibitive and may well put the farm out of business as well as cause a major environmental problem. You must be in compliance with federal, state, county and local laws.

For example, our farm was once presented with a $380,000 fine, resulting from 19 alleged violations. We were able to negotiate this down to 'only' $40,000 by proving that most of the allegations were false or unsupportable. We had all our ducks in a row: written records, oral testimony, and journals, as well as tons of information from the companies supplying our chemicals. All of our MSDS (Material Safety and Data Sheets) for every product we used were complete and up to date. All of our supervisors were certified trained in first aid and CPR.

The local Fire Dept. was glad to provide this service free of cost. Ignorance is NOT a defense. Semper paratus! We and our local competitors certainly did keep our eyes on one another. That was just business.

Answer: N-P-K

N-P-K stands for Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium. The numbers indicate the ratio, 6-6-6 being equal parts of the three. Nitrogen helps most in leaf growth and greenness, phosphorus increases root strength and fruit development, and potassium helps overall plant strength, flower color and size. Different crops require different mixtures; the mix we used most often was 10-10-10, but 23-0-22 was also used for non flowering leafy crops, whereas root crops, like daikon and kohlrabi need more phosphorus. Flowering crops such as gai lan (chinese broccoli) and yu choy required more potassium. Both should show several small blossoms at the end of the shoots.

These two were also the most expensive of the crops we grew.

Answer: "The Label is the Law."

The label was not only what was written on the container, but included the folded up long list of precautions and instructions required by law. As there was no standardization at this time (1980s - 1990s), each manufacturer had a different format, so each chemical label needed intensive reading.

It was a violation of federal law to use any product outside of the constrictions stated on the label, and it stated who, what, when, where, and why the product could be used. This often presented a problem in semantics for farmers of specific crops such as ours (Chinese vegetables)because some labels were not specific enough. If, for example, they stated "may be applied on cabbage..." that was a very broad statement, as most of our crops fell into the category of cabbage; but there is close headed cabbage (such as Napa) and open headed cabbage (such as bok choy).

These two hold pesticide residue differently. Many trips to Tallahassee and many explanations of the several terms for our crops, as well as pictures for identification, were required. During the 19 years I was involved, labeling was making advances toward a standard, and opening the field to newer or more ethnically based crops.

Answer: Levels of acidity

The pH scale runs from 0 to 14. Neutral is at 7, the middle, and pure water should test at this level. The numbers above 7 and up to 14 indicate alkalinity or basicality, and they are logarithmic rather than linear, so that level 10 is 10 times higher than level 9. Numbers below 7 and down to 0 indicate degree of acidity, and a level of 2 is 10 times higher than level 3. So numbers toward the end of each scale indicate the highest degree of deviance. pH level is very important in that certain crops require more or less acidity. If you have ever used litmus paper, you may remember that when the paper turned blue it indicated alkalinity, while red indicated acidity.