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Re: Roundup information

In article <384421789.17588770@midnet.com> c.shaw@midnet.com writes:
>Andrew Bennett,andrew_bennett@ns.sympatico.ca,Internet writes:
>>If, for example, fresh vegetables cost more, people
>>eat less of them. This increases their risk of some
>>cancers. It is valid to argue that chemicals save
>>lives!
>
>What astoundingly simplistic logic!! In the UK the consumption of
>fresh fruit and veg is still falling but the demand for organic 
>produce is rising. The UK govt. has confirmed that the chemical residues 
>in fruit and veg can be as much as 25 times above the daily 'dose'. I suppose
>you will say this does no harm and that ingesting organophosphates is 
>actually good for you and helps saves lives? Get real. There is _NO_ need 
>to use chemicals except laziness and the desire to make easy money. As for 
>your distorted logic, it is absolute rubbish!

In the US, farmers are still aware of the devastation organic methods
can cause.  The Dust Bowl of the 1930s took place before modern herbicides
allowed farmers to reduce the amount of tilling they did, and before
artificial fertilizers were cheap enough to be used by most farmers.
The devastation was almost indescribable.

Herbicides are used instead of mechanical tillage mostly to reduce
erosion.  Now, I realize that the "organic" cachet is too narrow to
encompass good tillage practicies, but erosion is no joke.  To most
farmers, the preservation of topsoil is far more important than the
premium price that can be obtained by organic certification of their
products.  

The idea that farmers are lazy and can make easy money by using
chemicals is absurd.  There is no easy money in farming, though writing
diatribes for health-food publications probably comes close.

	-- Robert
-- 
Robert Plamondon, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc. 
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert@plamondon.com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139
http://www.pioneer.net/~robertp
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