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News
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Oregon provides fertile ground for fertilizer products
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5/4/2011
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Article Content Suggested lead
The number of fertilizer products registered in Oregon has nearly doubled in ten years. Thankfully, someone is watching to make sure consumers are protected and businesses play fair:
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Audio 01
Oregon's fertilizer law, revised in 2001, specifically deals with product labels and heavy metals. The Oregon Department of Agriculture looks at both components:
WOLF: "We are concerned that every product that's out there is registered so that we have some idea that it is safe in terms of heavy metals and that the labeling is consistent with what's in the product." :10
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ODA fertilizer specialist Don Wolf says there are sometimes outrageous claims on the label, and the agency has the authority to take products off the shelf until proper changes are made. ODA's Matt Haynes says the heavy metal standards were needed after California and Washington put limits on their fertilizer products:
HAYNES: "We did not want to become the dumping ground for products, mostly coming from China, that had elevated levels of cadmium or arsenic or mercury." :10
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For now, there are more than 7-thousand registered fertilizer products in Oregon. The growth in hydroponics has a lot to do with the increase and much of that is linked to the production of marijuana- both medical, which is legal, and non-medical, which is not. ODA does not deal with what the fertilizer is used for, but law enforcement, of course, deals with criminal activity. In Salem, I'm Bruce Pokarney.
Additional audio: Audio 03
WOLF says there has been a near doubling in registered fertilizer products in Oregon the past decade with one sector largely responsible and occasionally connected to production of both medical and non-medical marijuana:
"Hydroponics has been one of the fastest growing segments of our registration. There is a wide range of products out there. The other thing is there is a lot of competition. If somebody comes up with a new product that is selling well, there will be eight, ten dozen copycats within a relatively short period of time." :20
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Additional audio: Audio 04
HAYNES says there are many examples of misleading labels on pesticide products. In some cases, some products claim to have high nutrient value and therefore charge a higher price to unwitting consumers:
"They have the audacity to say super concentrated. Then you pay large amounts of money for a very little bit of nutrient." :11
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Full story
http://oregon.gov/ODA/news/110504fertilizers.shtml |
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