Bunny Snow wrote:
> There is a real war going on across the U.S. On one side is the USEPA
> is actually attempting to better protect farm workers and our children's
> health (while at the same time help the biotech industry). And on the
> other side the American Crop Protection Association, which represents
> about 90 major pesticide and chemical companies who manufacture
> organophosphate and carbamate nerve gases are brainwashing reporters.
>
> Is ACPA involved with the Texas A&M University Agricultural and Food
> Policy Center? AFPA has presented papers on the impacts of eliminating
> organophosphates and carbamates from food production. See:
> <http://afpc1.tamu.edu/pesticides.htm>.
>
> The American people need to hear both sides of the issues. They need to
> hear from you because you are growing safer, healthier food and soil!
>
> I've taken these snippets from the middle of a long article at the URL
> of <http://www.oregonlive.com:80/news/99/06/st062702.html> and the
> author, Mr. Bernton left his telephone number and email address for you
> to contact him...503-294-7689 or by e-mail at
> <halbernton@news.oregonian.com>
>
> I encourage organic farmers to share their side of the story regarding
> the combating of these pests, lest the nerve gases stay on the market
> and kill beneficial organisms, livestock, wildlife, domestic animals,
> and children of all ages, alike.
>
> ~Bunny Snow
> ________________________________________________
>
> Agencies prod farmers to cut chemical use on potatoes
>
> An EPA review of the Northwest industry to gauge cumulative risks -- on
> and off the farm --could lead to new restrictions
> Sunday, June 27, 1999
>
> By Hal Bernton of The Oregonian staff
>
> **...To rid their fields of the worms, Oregon potato farmers use a
> high-volume mix of metam-sodium and 1-3 dichloropropene, fumigants that
> penetrate the ground and extinguish most soil life. In 1997, they pumped
> more than 8 million pounds of fumigants into the soil.
>
> The chemicals appear to dissipate rapidly and don't show up as residues
> in any of the federal sampling surveys. Nor do they appear to leach into
> the groundwater. State officials have found serious nitrate pollution
> from farm fertilizers but no significant ground-water pollution from
> fumigants or other pesticides.
>
> But the fumigants can drift into the air and off the fields. Each spring
> and fall, air monitors around the U.S. Army's Umatilla Chemical Depot, a
> nerve-gas storage site near Hermiston, register readings of fumigants
> for weeks.
>
> The fumigants also pack such a powerful punch that they kill beneficial
> organisms in the soil that would be a farmer's ally.
>
> "Agriculture is a biological process, and if you nuke all the
> organisms, it slows down the decomposition of organic matter and can
> disrupt the recycling of nutrients and all sorts of things," said Chuck
> Benbrook, an entomologist and former staff member of the National
> Academy of Sciences board on agriculture.
>
> Russ Ingham, an Oregon State University nematologist, is trying to find
> ways to reduce fumigant use. In 1997, he demonstrated that farmers could
> cut back their use by 20 percent annually and still achieve good
> nematode control. This year, in a test plot above the Columbia River,
> he's searching for new efficiencies, bagging dozens of soil-treatment
> samples for analysis at his Corvallis laboratory.
>
> He dreams of a day when fumigants no longer are needed. Toward that end,
> he's trying to find crops that nematodes don't attack. Grown in rotation
> with potatoes, such crops might knock back the nematodes to a safe
> level.
>
> For now, the crops most efficient at fighting nematodes aren't lucrative
> enough to attract many farmers. The hottest prospect so far is the
> humble lima bean.''... **
>
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