Glenn Waller's 100 acres of soybeans in Washington County,
Georgia, are the highest yielding in the state. But the "Mr.
Efficiency" award winner is worried about rust. Soybean farmers
in the Southeast survived a bout with the crop-destroying fungus
in 2005 by using pesticides to halt its spread. But Waller
remains worried about a rust resurgence. "I'm afraid we're going
to kind of put it on the back burner and it's going to jump back
up and get us,” he said. Waller, who has farmed for 51 years,
increasingly has turned to fungicides to ward off pests and
increase his crop yields. Farmers around the country are doing
the same, causing an unprecedented surge in fungicide use. But
as widespread contamination of waterways near these farms
emerges, experts warn that there is inadequate environmental
monitoring and information on the chemicals' safety. "It's
concerning," said Jason Belden, an environmental toxicologist at
Oklahoma State University. "We have limited toxicological data
for a lot of these compounds." F