Tomato grower Ag-Mart has been charged with the largest violation of pesticide laws in North Carolina history. But state officials say they can do little to ensure that the company changes its ways.

Ag-Mart's 1,100 acres in Brunswick and Pender counties will get more frequent checks from state Agriculture Department inspectors, said Patrick Jones, the pesticide section's enforcement manager. But there are only seven inspectors to check on more than 26,000 private pesticide applicators in North Carolina, he said.

"We can check and check on them," Jones said. "But we can't just stay there all the time."

Ag-Mart, based in Florida, established its North Carolina farms in 2002. It sells its grape tomatoes nationwide under the brand name "Santa Sweets."

Before last spring, when the federal Environmental Protection Agency tipped off North Carolina officials about problems with Ag-Mart's pesticide use in Florida, the state Agriculture Department had never inspected Ag-Mart's farms.

Agriculture officials didn't inspect in 2003, after the N.C. Labor Department cited the company for pesticide violations -- which they found while investigating illegal worker housing. The Labor Department has authority to cite some pesticide violations, even though it is the Agriculture Department's duty to enforce those laws.

When Agriculture inspectors visited the farm last April, they found the state's worst pesticide violations ever.

According to the state's report, field hands were working in freshly sprayed fields that weren't safe to re-enter for up to seven days. Workers had inadequate training and protective gear. One toxic pesticide was applied more than three times as often as the law allows.

North Carolina health officials are investigating whether the chemicals are to blame for three deformed babies born to former Ag-Mart workers. One has no arms or legs, one an underdeveloped jaw, and one no visible sex organs.

Ag-Mart denies breaking any laws and says the birth defects are not related to pesticides.

"Ag-Mart not only obeys the law, but sets a higher standard when it comes to worker and product safety," the company's publicist, Leo Bottary, said in a statement. "We do so because we value and depend upon our people; because we, too, are consumers of our product; and because it's the right thing to do."

Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said this week that he had not read his department's report on Ag-Mart and had not been briefed on the case.

Troxler said most farmers do a good job of obeying pesticide laws. The department, he said, pursues scofflaws with vigor. "We will take every step we can take to make sure it stops," Troxler said.

In fact, his powers are limited. Administrative fines are virtually the only enforcement tool, and state law limits them to $500 per violation. Fines cannot dent the budget of a multinational company such as Ag-Mart, which is owned by a Philadelphia conglomerate and has farms in three states and Mexico.

Ag-Mart is still negotiating with the Agriculture Department, and the company will almost certainly pay less than the $184,500 the state seeks. State law requires that agencies try to settle fines to avoid costly legal hearings.

Beyond fines, the state Pesticide Board can revoke a farmer's license to apply pesticides. But that would have little impact on Ag-Mart because those licenses go to individuals, not companies. Ag-Mart could simply bring in new employees to apply pesticides next year.

Jim Burnette, head of the pesticide section, said fines are ineffective in cases such as Ag-Mart's. But he said he hopes scrutiny and public pressure will force the company to improve its practices.

Already, the Florida press has lambasted Ag-Mart, and Wal-Mart has removed Ag-Mart products from the shelves. Under pressure, Ag-Mart announced that it would stop using five pesticides linked to birth defects.

Burnette said there is nothing he can do to ensure that the company keeps its promise to stop using those pesticides. But he said he thinks the company is making "meaningful changes."

"There are people who say, if you have these significant violations, you should fine them, you should put them out of business," Burnette said. "If you put the company out of business, those workers are out of jobs."

Ag-Mart employs about 500 workers, most of them seasonal migrants, in North Carolina, state officials estimate.

Critics say state officials don't want to crack down on companies such as Ag-Mart.

Most state departments, including agriculture, are both advocates and law enforcers for industry. Their commissioners are elected and rely on contributions from industry leaders to finance their campaigns.

"The enforcement agencies see themselves as allies of the businesses that they're trying to enforce these rules against," said Carol Brooke, a lawyer with the N.C. Justice Center, a nonprofit advocacy group for the poor.

Regina Luginbuhl, head of the Labor Department's agricultural safety and health bureau, said she knows the frustration of trying to protect Ag-Mart workers.

In 2003, she found many of them living in an abandoned hotel strewn with trash and infested with roaches. Because the company used labor contractors to arrange worker housing, she couldn't hold the company responsible. Instead, she fined three labor contractors.

Today, Luginbuhl said, she has no way to know whether Ag-Mart's workers live in better conditions. She has no authority to inspect unless the company or its labor contractors arrange the housing.