Re: Fwd: Re: Speaking of "Toxic Palouse"

[Luke Sheneman <sheneman@netscape.com>]

I tend to agree with Dave on this point.  Large scale organic farming
(agriculture without the use of artifical pesticides and fertilizers) is
completely possible and completely desireable.  At least here in California,
almost every grocery store has an organic foods section, and there are many
stores which refuse to sell anything but organic foods.  In many cases, organic
foods are only slightly more expensive than conventional foods.

As far as artificial fertilizers go, there is currently a 7,000 square-mile
area in the Gulf of Mexico which is completely devoid of life due to
"hypoxia".  The cause is artificial fertilizers which travel from the midwest
down the Mississippi river and into the oceans.  The nitrogen-rich water spurs
algae growth which depletes the oxygen in the Gulf and causes complete death to
things which would otherwise life there.  And this oxygen-depleted area of
death is growing.

There are alternatives to artifical pesticides and fertilizers, and all farmers
should investigate them.  In some cases, local and federal governments will
credit and subsidize farmers who use organic approaches to crop fertilization,
including the use of livestock manure and alfalfa.

You might be interested in this web page:
http://www.fb.com/iafb/fbnews/hypconf.htm

-Luke

Dave Willard wrote:

> Malcolm Renfrew may have written:
> >Here is an AMEN for the message by Judi Thompson that supports the
> >responsible use of pesticides and aerial application in the Palouse.
>
> How can you call poisoning your neighbors (and your customers for that
> matter) responsible????????
>
> >The people who are applying them have families living in this area, and
> >they do not do things that will be harmful to people.
>
> Yes they do! Of course they don't want to, or intend to, but nevertheless
> they ARE doing things which are very harmful to people (and themselves).
>
> >Such measures are
> >needed to supply good food that is free of natural toxic substances at an
> >economically realistic price in large quantity.    Malcolm Renfrew
> >
>
> So you are saying you have to apply artificial toxic substances in order to
> reduce natural toxic substances????  What natural toxic substances are you
> talking about?
>
> There are many organic farms which survive quite well (they would survive
> even better if the other farmers weren't screwing up the ecosystem), they
> provide food that is truly good (i.e. not low level poison in disguise). And
> if you count the hidden costs of the current system (like most cancer
> treatments among others) then it's much cheeper to grow food without these
> chemicals.
>
> Peace
>
> Dave



--
Luke Sheneman, UNIX Architect for Netscape Communications Corp.
sheneman@netscape.com
(650)937-3513