Senate Bill 20, now before the Oregon Legislature, is based on noble intentions but it could be disastrous in its impact on the ability of farmers in Hood River County and around the state to grow fruit and stay in business.

The bill would prohibit aerial spraying of pesticides within a one-mile radius of any school property during the academic year. (March is a key time for spraying in the pear and apple orchards that form the basis of the Hood River economy.)

Under SB 20, growers would also need to jump through a series of bureaucratic hoops in order to apply chemicals within a five-mile radius of a school. This affects at least 6,000 acres of farmland in Hood River County.

SB 20 flies in the face of reality as to where schools and farms are located in agricultural communities all over the state.

In fruit-rich Hood River County, the books-to-blossoms proximity is part of life. Every school in Hood River County, with the exception of Cascade Locks, is easily within the five-mile radius, and only Hood River Middle School and May Street are outside the one-mile zone.

In fact, most schools directly abut orchards.

As of March 7, SB 20, sponsored by Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, and Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, had been assigned to the Environment and Natural Resources Committee for review.

The sponsors are laudable in their concerns for lowering childhood cancer rates and warding off asthma and other respiratory illnesses, but this bill is not the way to go about it.

Walker and Holvey might instead investigate supporting the many ways growers try to reduce the impacts of pesticides or to cut down on using them at all.

They might consider helping put teeth in efforts by growers, and agriculture research agencies, to keep the public from growing backyard pear, apple and cherry trees. Non-chemical efforts to interrupt the sexual life cycle of the harmful codling moth depend on depriving the moths of places to mate – and someone’s hobby farm can completely disrupt the farmers’ efforts.