Pesticide Combination Leads to Parkinson's

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

Here's the story...

Any wonder why I'm an organic gardener? I still buy store produce...if I could get away from it I would. Hypocrite! Actually I could...I live in an area with a LONG 6 month+ growing season...North Alabama. I really need to get off my behind and build that greenhouse I've always wanted! Then I could garden year round!

My opinion is that we will be seeing more and more of this type of study coming to the same conclusions....synthetic pesticides are very harmful. Remember DDT?....methyl parathion?...azinphos methyl?.....diazinon?...These are all banned now. Each of them at their development were hailed as "GRAS"...government speak for "Generally Regarded As Safe" for use on food crops and in diazinons' case, for general pest control. What does the government say now? "Uh, sorry, we think they may be harmful after all, so stop using them and everything will be fine."

Wrong again! Many of these dangerous chemicals are in the ground, in the water and in our bodies - and they can stay around for a very long time.

How about a long and drawn out discusion on agribusiness....

Do we need to use synthetic pesticides or herbicides? I say no way. I haven't in 13 years and I raise great crops.

Do we need factory animal farms? Maybe, but not like the ones we have now.

Is there enough food to feed everyone? About 70% of USA's grain production goes to feed livestock.(1) 61% of all herbicides produced are applied to animal feed crops.(2) I like a good t-bone as much as the next guy, but doesn't this sound out of balance? I eat beef once a month or so and would pay a premium price for it when I did if it would help this imbalance. Most of you probably would too.

(1)USDA,Economic Research Service, World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates,WASD-256,July 11,1991 tables 256-7,-16,-19,-23. (2)Micheal Fox and Nancy Wiswall, The Hidden Costs of Beef, (Washington DC,Humane Society of The USA),1989, pgs.25-26

Bring on the comments...for and against!!

Jason

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), January 04, 2001

Answers

I'm sorry...the URL to the story didn't get into my message. Here it is.

http://my.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=50100&id=200101 041550000297486

Jason

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), January 04, 2001.


Sorry again ...that URL didn't work either!!!!!!

Here's the story -

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010104/sc/health_parkinsons_dc_2.htm l

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), January 04, 2001.


I'm going to shoot my computer!!!!!!

Delete the space between th "m" and "l" at the end of the "html"

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), January 04, 2001.


If for no other reason, the continued posts made me laugh -- I feel the same way with the computer at times.

I see nothing to disagree with here. Before the advent of the chemical 'wonders' we have now, insect damage to crops was at 49%. Since the advent of these 'blessings', insect damage is at 52%. For that, we got a toxic cocktail? You might want to look into eating buffalo t-bones. The local rancher around here raises them on grass and grass hay only, and won't spread human bio-sludge.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 05, 2001.


Jason, look for a book called Four Season Harvest by Elliot Coleman (who lives here in New Hampshire, I think, so his climate is quite a bit colder than yours!). You can be getting food from your garden all year round without a greenhouse. His cold frames are pretty fancy, and pricey, but in your milder climate you could get by with simpler ones just fine. Hope this helps.

-- Kathleen Sanderson in NH (stonycft@worldpath.net), January 05, 2001.


For all who are concerned about herbicides and pesticides in your food here is a great website www.truefoodnow.org/shoppinglist.html

I also recommend you read "The Food Storage Bible" by Jayne Benkendorf. It sounds like it is about things like canning and freezing food, but it is all about what is in your food and the effect it has on your body. She also has two other books telling you what brands are good and recipes for their use.

-- debra in ks (solid-dkn@msn.com), January 05, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ