A new report for the first time charts what the industry has known for years: California farmers for the past 12 years have been switching from older pesticides and moving to safer, more modern compounds to pursue Integrated Pest Management strategies.

The five-page report, titled Pesticide Use Trends in California Agriculture, compared the total use of 40 organophosphate and carbamate pesticides and found their use has declined by 66 percent from 1998 to 2009. The numbers come from California regulators who began requiring all agricultural pesticide use reported in 1990.

A California Court of Appeals reversed an earlier Superior Court decision thereby abandoning a $12 million judgment that Fresh Express Inc. had received against an insurance carrier to recover losses resulting from the 2006 E. coli outbreak associated with fresh spinach.

A three-judge panel ruled Sept. 8 that the Monterey County Superior Court had erred in interpreting the recall insurance policy that Salinas, CA-based Fresh Express had in place at the time with Lloyds of London.

Joe Tamble

Sun-Maid Growers of California, a cooperative owned by nearly 1,000 family raisin grape growers