Mr. BIANCo. Use Kelthane 7 dust. Senator CRANSTON. Is that it? Mr. BIANCO. Yes. Senator CRANSTON. Is that less dangerous than chlorinated hydrocarbons? Mr. BIANCO. Kelthane is. Senator CRANSTON. Thank you. Senator MONDALE. One final question: In addition to being a grower you are also a shipper, are you not? Mr. BIANCO. Yes; I am a grower and shipper. Senator MONDALE. Do you occasionally handle grapes as a shipper not grown on your farms? Mr. BIANCO. Yes. Senator MONDALE. Thank you. Senator MURPHY. May I ask a question, Senator Mondale? Just to conclude what I assume to be the logic of the Chairman's question, in other grapes that you have shipped do you think there is any possibility of aldrin having been used on those grapes? Mr. BIANCO. That is impossible. Senator MURPHY. So, in other words, neither the grapes which you grew nor the grapes which you shipped contained, or had been sprayed with aldrin? Mr. BIANCO. They were not. Senator MURPHY. Thank you very much. Senator MONDALE. Thank you. We will print your full statement, together with the attachments, at this point in the record. (The prepared statement of Mr. Bianco follows:) STATEMENT OF ANTHONY A. BIANCO, JR. Fresno, California President, Bianco Fruit Company Before the Senate Subcommittee on Migratory Labor * My name is Anthony A. Bianco, Jr., a resident of Fresno, California, and president of the Bianco Fruit Corporation, growers and shippers of table grapes in the Coachella Valley, Arvin, Delano As such, I am engaged in business and Fresno areas of California. in the four largest table grape-growing regions of the state. I am also one of 12 California table grape growers who agreed to negotiate--and tried to negotiate--with the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee in late June and early July of this year in an effort to achieve a labor contract covering my grape pickers. Tho se negotiations continued for three weeks and recessed, without a successful conclusion, on July 3. But more important to these hearings, I am the grower of the Thompson seedless grapes which were presented to this Subcommittee on August 1 as containing harmful levels of the pesticide aldrin. Specifically, the report on my grapes by the C. W. England Laboratories said the aldrin content was 18 parts per million aldrin, or 180 times the established human tolerance level. The England report says UFWOC advised the laboratory the grapes in question came from my operation in the Coachella Valley. This subcommittee was told the Thompson seedless grapes were purchased from a Safeway Store in Washington. I did not ship any Thompson seedless grapes from the Coachella Valley to Washington. I did ship a carload of Thompson seedless grapes to a distributor in Baltimore on July 12, the second-to-last shipment from my Coachella vineyards. The final Coachella shipment went to Texas the following day, July 13. The owner of that company advised that the carload he received arrived in Baltimore on July 19 and that none of the grapes was sold to Safeway Stores. Fifty boxes--the only grapes which could have reached Washington--were sold to the National Produce Company. The remainder of the shipment was broken into small lots for sale to other chains. But Safeway Stores, whose retail outlets in the Washington area were closed by a labor dispute at that time, did not purchase any. My first direct shipment of Thompson seedless to Washington this year was made July 25 from the Arvin area of Kern County. The first consignment went by rail and took eight days to arrive, so the grapes could not have been on store shelves for UFWOC to purchase on July 30. A truckload of Thompson seedless left Arvin July 26 for Washington and arrived five days later--or July 30. These must have been the grapes that UFWOC submitted to the England Laboratories. But these grapes weren't in the same condition as when they left my vineyards. The reason--I don't use aldrin on grapes. No grower in the Coachella Valley or Kern County--and that includes Delano and Arvin--uses aldrin on grapes. I don't know of any grape grower anywhere who uses aldrin on grapes. A sworn statement to the effect that I have not used aldrin has been placed into the Congressional Record, along with statements from my pesticide supplier and applicator. Copies of these statements are attached and I ask that they be made a part of the record at this point. When I made that statement, I checked my records for the previous six years. Since then, I have examined the balance of my records and I am sure I have never used aldrin on any crop. The agricultural commissioners in the counties where I grow grapes have stated no aldrin is used in any vineyard in their counties. County agricultural commissioners in California must be advised of any commercial application of pesticides in their counties. The University of California, which advises farmers on pesticides, does not include aldrin in their 1969 Pest Control Recommendation as a pesticide useful to grape production. The Food and Drug Administration survey on its 60 tests in market and packer samplings across the country found no trace of aldrin on any grapes, including mine which were specifically tested by the FDA. I resent the tactic that has been used against me. This aldrin scare is no more than another effort to whip me into submission. I tried to negotiate but could get nowhere in the face of UFWOC's non-negotiable demands. Now UFWOC is trying to bring me down in retaliation. What has happened here is contrary to the stated principles of Cesar Chavez and his movement. Trace his movement. He failed to persuade workers on farms to join his organization. He staged a boycott aimed at forcing union organization by pressuring stores. Now he has moved to this new tactic of trying to destroy an industry with the false charge of pesticide contamination. I find it difficult to believe that UFWOC now makes its stand on pesticides in the name of worker and consumer health. Mr. Chavez testified yesterday that the negotiations broke down over the issues of wages and pesticides. The facts are that the negotiations failed over a number of 1ssues. And, significantly, it was pesticides on which UFWOC was most ready to give. UFWOC used pesticides as a throw-away item in the negotiations. Mr. Chavez' committee made an offer in writing through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. I should like to read that proposal. "That we are prepared to give a moratorium to the whole industry on the pesticide campaign for a limited time in exchange for an acceptable contract covering all workers, all crops." That isn't the kind of offer a man who claims to be sincere about pesticides would make. While this pesticide campaign has been going on, there have been firebombings of cars belonging to grape pickers working in the fields and of growers' packing sheds. Since the boycott began, incendiary fires in rural areas of California have increased drastically, particularly in the grape-growing regions. We who tried to negotiate with the Chavez people have been a major target for harassment. On September 12, for example, I was investigating a mysterious $6,000 fire in one of my packing sheds when a firebomb was thrown at another shed and some lug boxes were burned in a Delano field. |