DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290674

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: TEMPERANCEVILLE                   LENGTH:   73 lines

VEGETABLE GROWERS SEE TOUGHER TIMES

Migrant farmworkers rip sheets of plastic mulch from rows of sagging tomato plants. The harvest is over. It's time to spray herbicide, pull up acres of cedar stakes and burn the synthetic trellis strings.

Scenes like these are common on the Eastern Shore, where most of Virginia's vegetables are grown. But that may be changing.

Two years of bad weather and stiff - some say unfair - competition from Mexican growers have just about brought local vegetable farmers to their knees.

``The fall was a disaster,'' said Bill Mapp, marketer with the Virginia Department of Agriculture on the Eastern Shore. ``Prices for cucumbers and green beans are so low that some farmers have abandoned fields rather than harvest.''

This year, six major potato and vegetable producers on the Shore either went out of business, planted grains or grew a fraction of their former vegetable crop, said Jim Belote, agricultural extension agent in Accomack County.

At the beginning of the season, Belote predicted that the Eastern Shore might lose $28.7 million in farm revenues as a result of these changes - a third of the region's total crop value.

More than 1,900 of the region's 5,000 farmworker jobs evaporated,

Belote said, when the growers didn't plant labor-intensive vegetables that need to be hand picked, such as tomatoes. That means the economy of Accomack and Northampton counties, two of the poorest in the state, took an additional $17.4 million hit, Belote said.

No final figures are available to confirm Belote's predictions. But one thing is apparent: Vegetable farming on the Eastern Shore is in trouble.

``It's been a lot of hard work and a lousy market,'' said Butch Nottingham, president of the Association of Virginia Potato and Vegetable Growers. ``I try to be upbeat, but it's hard to see a silver lining.''

Last year, the Eastern Shore got 30.9 inches of rain during the growing season and the vegetables drowned. This year's rainfall during the growing season was a mere 11.8 inches.

``We didn't get any rain until it was basically too late to do any good,'' said Nottingham.

But farmers are accustomed to wrestling with the weather. What really hurts, they say, is international competition for their markets that was made possible by the North American Free Trade Agreement. Among other provisions, NAFTA eliminated tariffs and quotas on imported produce.

According to an analysis of NAFTA by an independent law firm, ``In the U.S., grain producers should be the biggest beneficiaries, while producers of fruits and vegetables, particularly winter crops, may be the most adversely affected.''

Lynn Gayle, tomato farmer and president of the Accomack County Farm Bureau, said Mexican growers are selling their vegetables cheaper than Virginians can grow them. Laborers earn an average of $3 per day on Mexican farms, he said. In the United States they must be paid at least minimum wage, $5.15 an hour.

``We can't compete,'' said Gayle. ``The bottom line is, it's not a fair playing field.''

Gayle, Belote and others believe they have to take their fight for survival into the legislative arena. Gayle would like to see laws making it illegal to import products made with child labor.

``What's the difference between buying a soccer ball made by a child and buying a tomato from Mexico that's picked by a 6-year-old?'' asked Gayle.

He supports the Imported Produce Labeling Act, presented to Congress in April. The law would require retailers to label vegetables with their country of origin.

Del. Bob Bloxom from the Eastern Shore may introduce similar legislation on the state level. So far, Florida is the only state that requires point-of-origin labeling. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

BILL TIERNAN

The Virginian-Pilot

Lynn Gayle...

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