Yup, that's my newest title at the farm. Sunday morning I spent an hour or so looking up Worker Protection Standards (WPS) and what Farmer Bill (and I) needed to do to be in compliance with same. WPS was set up to protect workers from contact with pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides). Mostly common sense, there were enough non-sensible events in the past to prompt this legislation: crop dusters spraying fields filled with pickers, growers not respecting the Re-Entry Interval (REI) as listed on pesticide labels, workers being fired for not wanting to enter a recently sprayed/treated field, etc. The libertarian in Farmer Bill sometimes get frustrated by the regulations - it's very difficult to keep up with them all - and the left-wing commie pinko in me supports them and wants us to comply. After looking through the MN Department of Ag website, I decided to go ahead and be certified as a Trainer for WPS, which took me just over an hour to register, go through the training materials and take the exam. I passed with 93.33% on the first try, so like I said, it's mostly common sense.
In terms of the WPS, Straight River Farm has always been essentially in compliance. Farmer Bill totally respects the REI for his pesticides. Ditto for the Pre-Harvest Interval. He keeps a record of what and when he sprays, and wears appropriate safety gear when applying pesticides. Where SRF is not in compliance is not having a training session for the employees to tell them what all the abbreviations mean, why they can't go in a field sometimes, and what/how to report any concerns they might have. It's a simple fix, and we'll take care of it for the coming growing season. Even though the libertarian and the liberal sometimes battle a bit inside Farmer Bill, he would never knowingly put himself or his workers - or his customers! - in danger.
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