For my writing class I examined this article written over 14 years ago by an investigative journalist at the Seattle Times. It was an award winning piece that led to sweeping legislation and eventually a book. It is the type of story that all journalism students hope to complete sometime during their careers.
The Writer: Duff Wilson is an investigative
journalist who currently covers the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries for
the New York Times. Prior to
arriving on the East Coast in 2004, he was the investigative projects reporter
at the Seattle Times where he was a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Story: " Fear in the Fields – How Hazardous Wastes Become Fertilizer” is a two-part investigative report published in the Seattle Times on July 3rd and 4th, 1997. The piece described how certain companies avoid the high costs of hazardous waste disposal by legally ‘recycling’ these toxic substances into fertilizer.
Part One of the story follows Patty Martin, mayor of the small town of Quincy Washington, in her effort to alert the public that farmers in her area were unknowingly using fertilizer made from hazardous waste. She was prompted to investigate fertilizers after the local branch of the agricultural supply company, Cenex, disposed of hazardous material on a nearby farm and claimed it would benefit the crops.
Wilson’s story described the division that erupted within
the town, as many farmers feared that Martin’s efforts would cause their buyers
to go elsewhere for wheat, potatoes, and onions. Wilson weaved this narrative with an explanation of how
by-products of heavy industry get labeled as fertilizer, and examples of this
practice in other parts of the country.
In an interview, Duff Wilson elaborated on his decision to
center this part of his piece on Patty Martin and use her story as the
narrative spine. “She was very effective in that role,” he said. He also added, “she was in Quincy
raising these questions and she was being attacked by other people in
Quincy. It provided a lot of
drama.”
In part two of the story, Wilson moves away from the
narrative in Quincy and examines the regulation of fertilizers around the
country. He describes how federal
law did not control fertilizer, and how only a few states put limits on the
amount of tolerable heavy metals in fertilizer. The opening lede gives the reader a clear understanding of
the discrepancy in state laws.
“When a trucker picks up a load of gray, toxic ash from a
metal-processing plant in California, he hangs a "hazardous waste"
sign on his rig. On crossing the border into Nevada, he takes the sign down. In
that state, what he's carrying is no longer considered hazardous waste, but
fertilizer ingredients.”
Wilson then showed the differing regulatory approaches in
North America by continuing to follow the hypothetical hazardous waste hauling
trucker. He said, “when he got to British Columbia, he'd
be turned away at the border.”
Then the piece turned to examine the sway of the fertilizer
industry in Congress. It cited,
for example, how a proposal, to ban fertilizers containing more than .1 percent
lead, was killed by Congressional allies of the fertilizer industry.
The Aftermath: Legislators in a number of capitals
introduced bills to regulate heavy metals in fertilizer following the
publication of this article.
Washington State, for example, passed a law in 1999 putting explicit
limits on the amount of metals allowed in fertilizer.
For many, this was seen as a victory for the overall health
of vegetable eaters. But Patty Martin was upset with this legislation. She believed it legalized the process,
and wanted to see a sweeping law banning the inclusion of all hazardous waste
in fertilizer.
Additionally, following the publication, Martin lost her
re-election bid for mayor, and her husband lost his job at the local potato
processing plant. The Martins
attributed this to the anger of many in the food producing community caused by
the article and by Patty’s activism in general.
The piece was a Pulitzer finalist, and in 2001 Duff Wilson
published a book about the story entitled, “Fateful Harvest, The True Story of
a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret.”
The Reporting: When Patty Martin first contacted Duff
Wilson he was skeptical. He had
never heard of companies using hazardous waste in fertilizer but nevertheless
was intrigued enough to make the two-hour drive to Quincy to speak with Martin
and others. After recognizing there
was a story, he realized the uniqueness of the phenomenon. “It was really a new
concept, a new paradigm really,” he said
Wilson also understood, however, that he might have trouble
finding sources because not many academics or government officials were aware
of this practice. As a result, he
had to look outside of the Northwest to find information. He learned of a California government
task force holding a meeting on the matter and attended. He found, however, that the group was
funded by the fertilizer industry and did not provide useful data.
He eventually spoke with academics in Alabama, Kansas, and
Texas, and regulators in California and Washington DC. The entire reporting
process was lengthy. Wilson
stated, “it was a long time, I think it was on the order of nine months to a
year.”
Also, while reporting, he was concerned about possible future
litigation because of another recent report involving Washington State
agriculture. In that piece, 60
Minutes had made mistakes while reporting on the chemical Alar and its use on apples. Apple growers, many in the Quincy area, were angered by this
story and brought a case against CBS.
Wilson explains,
“I was worried about it really because of the legal actions involving
Alar.” But he noted that after publication no one brought any libel suits.
“There was never any suggestion of that
because I was pretty careful,” he said.
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