lets let dow chemical and monsanto serve you corn flakes this morning

Disturbing Trends in Agriculture

Babe using conventional tillage on back 40

 

   Being a farmer with experience and education and being aware of issues affecting our well-being , I am concerned of late with the disturbing direction I am seeing in modern agriculture moving as of lately, in an effort to maximize profits while endangering the consumer as a whole, as well our ecosystem and our drinking water.

    Another part of the commercialization of agriculture has to do with marketing strategies and the raping of the American taxpayer in an effort to improve their bottom line during a boom year of harvest. Both subjects I will address specifically today as I discuss their merits or lack of, in a two part series I intend to start with today.

Part 1,  2,4-d approval as an herbicide and its use

     It is my understanding that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has approved the return of the chemical 2,4-D a chemical known to have caused cancer and was used as a primary defoliant in the Agent Orange when mixed with diesel fuel and applied to foliage to strip foliage of its leaves and render everything lifeless in its wake. Servicemen who worked with this defoliant in Vietnam ended up with a host of problems including lesions and cancer as a result of using this particular chemical combination. This was also used at the time in our crop fields as herbicide control on our fields to control the growth of weeds. It was eventually banned but it is my understanding it is being approved again as a control mechanism when used in conjunction with genetically modified corn developed by Dow Chemical Corporation in 13 states including here in the state of Ohio as a means of confronting weeds that have built up a resistance to Monsanto GMO corn and its use of the product Roundup, also a weed control herbicide typically used in most corn fields in our area now without any real knowledge of its use or how harmful it is to us, although there are suspicions there are problems with both, but we are powerless to stop its use presently.

      This is an herbicide that has known residual properties and can build up in the soil as its chemical bonds do not deteriorate within any reasonable time. This will eventually end up in our food supply and then in our water systems and our bodies will accumulate this cancer causing chemical combination to start increasing our chances of contracting cancer. Let alone what cell damage may result from the use of genetically modified corn in our diets, as it affects us also. Farmers may apply it directly to the fields beside your rural house and it could drift into your own food and water supply without any warning it is even there. This can further affect our honeybee population and as well butterflies and other wildlife in the area where it is sprayed. Again farmers are not required to notify you of any herbicide or pesticide application in your general area and bee keepers are encouraged that once you see spraying occur on farms adjacent to your apiary to shut in your bees as farmers will not be responsible for your bee’s health. This is disturbing to the point of being too protective of farmers.

     Farers of today want to establish themselves as limited liability corporations to prevent far reaching liability designed to prevent the wholesale action of judgments against their personal worth.  This is fine if they want to be treated as business in agriculture then they should have to provide information to neighbors just as chemical companies should have available to any neighbor or person working for them in the form of MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) data safety sheets, fully describing the chemicals they are using and the health effects of such as it relates to the use of the product. Also control needs to be executed in the form of notification of application to all neighbors in advance of application and total amount of product will be limited to acreage affected and recorded with local government ag agency for future reference. Soils samples need to be taken and tested to assure no buildup of chemicals or pesticide is present. Currently none of this is being done and farmers have proclaimed a need to be exempt from this as it would pose an undue hardship.

old grain mills at Magnolia Mill

     Cancer is a hardship as well as poor water quality and declining bee populations are also considerations consumers and neighbors of farmers, as well as quality of product produced which we eat directly. Where are the public rights and why this is necessary anyhow? It wasn’t till well after the Second World War spraying became a regular practice and then they were using DDT as a  major pesticide in an effort to test human vulnerability through chemical analysis. This was a major no-no in terms of human acceptability leading to cancer and chromosomal damage and was eventually banned from use as it also built up in our system and caused major environmental damage. It was supposed to be the answer to farmer’s problems of pest control. The trouble was it was going to kill the same consumers it was supposed to help feed. This is the same with what they are wanting to do now with 2,4, -D , and the GMO corn they intend to market to farmers next year. This has been fast tracked through the EPA and its approval department and they claim it is perfectly safe.

     Perfectly safe is an organic method of tilling with a cultivator and accepting what loss you may have to controlling weed growth. Weeds can also be controlled by preventing farmers from continually planting corn and crop rotation. This along with traditional varieties of non –GMO corn as they have in Europe where GMO corn and other GMO grains are banned will result in a more healthy product which will yield farmers more money for their product if given the chance to compete with GMO’s and in the long run will result in higher water quality for surrounding areas as well allow bees to reestablish themselves naturally and increase pollination of other crops. We used to only use cultivators as the primary method of controlling weed growth and need to return to conventional tillage despite lower crop yields and increased energy costs. Our lives are more important than chemical company profits.
    Here is the corresponding yahoo news link:Critics of Dow herbicide ingredient sue U.S. EPA over approval - Yahoo News

     This is the end of part 1 of my series of two parts regarding my problems with modern agriculture as it exists today. Next I will discuss our federal program of subsidies in the form of crop insurance and modern trend of farmers to capitalize on the program and increase fraud and abuse of the system while being perfectly legal in doing so.