Workers deny Ag-Mart sprayed them

Three current and former Ag-Mart workers said Wednesday that they were never exposed to pesticides on the company's farms in North Carolina.

State pesticide officials have accused Ag-Mart, which sells tomatoes in grocery stores across the country, of routinely forcing workers to labor in fields freshly sprayed with pesticides. One woman, who bore a child with no arms or legs, says the company's practices are the reason for her son's deformities.

But in a hearing Wednesday before the state Pesticide Board, the company brought workers who told a different story.

"That didn't happen," said former worker Sostenes Salazar, through an interpreter, when asked if she was sprayed or told to work in fields still wet with chemicals.

The board must now reconcile the conflicting stories from company workers and decide whether Ag-Mart is guilty of about 200 violations of worker safety laws. At stake are thousands of dollars in fines and the reputation of the international company, which sells tomatoes under the brand names Santa Sweets and Ugly Ripe.

The company employs hundreds of seasonal field hands in Brunswick County, as well as in Florida, New Jersey and Mexico.

Ag-Mart says it did not endanger its workers. Company officials say the state misinterpreted its records, which led to false charges.

In September, Francisca Herrera and Abraham Candelario, the parents of the limbless boy, testified that they were often doused with chemicals that made them sick while working for the company in North Carolina in 2004.

Ag-Mart paid a settlement to the couple earlier this year.

Salazar and another woman, Octaviana Cervantes, worked alongside Herrera and Candelario. In videotaped depositions played for the board Wednesday, they said they never saw pesticide sprayers nearby while they worked and were never sickened by chemicals. Both women have quit working for Ag-Mart, but said their husbands still work for the company.

Salazar's testimony was especially powerful, because she, too, was pregnant while working for Ag-Mart in 2004. She bore a child who was reported at the time to have a deformed jaw.

North Carolina officials began investigating Ag-Mart in April 2005 after hearing of three deformed babies born to Ag-Mart workers within six weeks of each other, including the children of Herrera and Salazar. The case has dragged on through years of legal wrangling.

Salazar's child, Jesus, now 3, appeared with her in the deposition video and showed no evidence of deformity. Salazar said he was healthy.

Enoc Villalobos, who continues to work as a pesticide sprayer for Ag-Mart, was the third worker who testified Wednesday. He said supervisors tell him not to spray near any workers, and they mark freshly sprayed fields with signs that warn "Do Not Enter."