There is a nasty situation growing in Britain regarding herbicides containing Aminopyralid killing off home gardens:
Gardeners across Britain are reaping a bitter harvest of rotten potatoes, withered salads and deformed tomatoes after an industrial herbicide tainted their soil. Caroline Davies reports on how the food chain became contaminated and talks to the angry allotment owners whose plots have been destroyed.
Gardeners have been warned not to eat home-grown vegetables contaminated by a powerful new herbicide that is destroying gardens and allotments across the UK.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has been inundated with calls from concerned gardeners who have seen potatoes, beans, peas, carrots and salad vegetables wither or become grossly deformed. The society admitted that it had no idea of the extent of the problem, but said it appeared ’significant’. The affected gardens and allotments have been contaminated by manure originating from farms where the hormone-based herbicide aminopyralid has been sprayed on fields.
-Guardian
On the one hand we’re faced with food shortages and rising prices. On the other hand we have the destruction of families’ ability to grow their own vegetables via herbicide resides in manures.
This story is not limited to Europe. In Minnesota they are warning against the feeding of ditch hay as well as hay from areas treated with these same herbicides:
Recently labeled herbicides containing the active ingredient aminopyralid (commonly sold as Milestone, Milestone VM, and ForeFront R&P) are beginning to replace picloram and clopyralid in many roadside treatment programs due to increased Canada thistle control with aminopyralid. Aminopyralid is in the same herbicide family as picloram and clopyralid, and poses the same potential to cause injury to broadleaf crops from contaminated manures. However, sensitive crop injury from aminopyralid contaminated manure has not yet been reported in Minnesota.
When animals are fed ditch hay that has been treated with either picloram or clopyralid, these chemicals pass quickly through the animal without significant degradation and end up in the manure via the urine, usually within a day or two. If sensitive crops (i.e. soybeans, lentils, peas, legumes, potatoes, tomatoes or peppers) are planted in fields where contaminated manure has been applied, injury or crop death can occur. Injured plants can exhibit twisting (epinasty), leaf cupping, and loss of apical dominance, resulting in short plants and abnormal side shoots.
-University of Minnesota
Who’s behind this toxic pollution, this destruction of the environment and home gardens? Why, it’s everyone’s favorite chemical corporation, Dow Chemical.
Dow AgroSciences, which manufactures aminopyralid, has posted advice to allotment holders and gardeners on its website. Colin Bowers, Dow’s UK grassland marketing manager, told The Observer that links to their products had been proved in some of the cases, but it was not clear whether aminopyralid was responsible for all of them and tests were continuing. ‘It is undoubtedly a problem,’ he said, ‘and I have got full sympathy for everyone who is involved with this.’
He said the company was unable to advise gardeners that it was ’safe’ to consume vegetables that had come into contact with the manure because of pesticide regulations. ‘All we can say is that the trace levels of aminopyralid that are likely to be in these crops are of such low levels that they are unlikely to cause a problem to human health.’
The Dow website says: ‘As a general rule, we suggest damaged produce (however this is caused) should not be consumed.’ Those who have already used contaminated manure are advised not to replant on the affected soil for at least a year.
Aminopyralid, which is found in several Dow products, the most popular being Forefront, a herbicide, is not licensed to be used on food crops and carries a label warning farmers using it not to sell manure that might contain residue to gardeners. The Pesticides Safety Directorate, which has issued a regulatory update on the weedkiller, is taking samples from affected plants for testing.
-Guardian
You would think that a reasonable, rational response would be to stop dumping toxic herbicides in the environment yet apparently Dow doesn’t get it:
Problems with the herbicide emerged late last year, when some commercial potato growers reported damaged crops. In response, Dow launched a campaign within the agriculture industry to ensure that farmers were aware of how the products should be used. Nevertheless, the herbicide has now entered the food chain. Those affected are demanding an investigation and a ban on the product. They say they have been given no definitive answer as to whether other produce on their gardens and allotments is safe to eat.
It appears that the contamination came from grass treated 12 months ago. Experts say the grass was probably made into silage, then fed to cattle during the winter months. The herbicide remained present in the silage, passed through the animal and into manure that was later sold. Horses fed on hay that had been treated could also be a channel.
:
Dow is planning a major publicity campaign to reiterate warnings to farmers over usage, and to encourage allotment holders to check the provenance of manure that they put down in an effort to prevent the problem escalating. On compensation, it was less forthcoming. ‘There is no easy answer to that,’ said Bowers. ‘The first port of call is always where the manure comes from. From that point on, I can’t really comment.‘The chain is horrendously complicated. In the cases we have managed to trace back, we might find that the farmer who supplied the manure didn’t spray anything himself, but he might have bought in a couple of bales of silage from one of his neighbours, and that farm might have sprayed.’
-Guardian
Of course, the shareholders and profits must be protected at all cost.
Should the finger be pointed at Dow AgroSciences? While admitting some of the manure can be linked back to their products, the company says it is by no means clear that all the episodes of contamination now being reported are as a result of aminopyralid.
They have broken no rules. Nevertheless, they acknowledge it is “undoubtedly’ a problem. To help, they have set up an online hotline and posted an information page on their website which advises concerned people to email them at UKHotline@dow.com.
They are also now planning a publicity campaign to drive home the message to farmers that they must handle these products with utmost care, and to warn gardeners they must check the provenance of any manure they buy.
Should the farmer who sold the manure be held responsible? That is not an easy one. In some cases the farmer had not sprayed his grassland at all and behaved completely responsibly, but still the manure was contaminated. One explanation could be that the farmer bought in silage off other farmers to feed livestock - and one of them had been sprayed. Or, perhaps, it came from a horse fed hay bought from a hay merchant, who bought from several farmers. Tracing back the chain becomes horribly complicated.
Should the product be banned? Certainly that’s the opinion of some gardeners I spoke to for the story in today’s Observer. Or will strengthening the label warning be enough to prevent the problem escalating? These are just some of the questions currently being debated in the gardening community.
-Word Of Mouth Blog
Frankly, it’s time for Dow to step up to the plate and pay for dinner.
NAIS is taking away our basic right to raise our own meat by creating a licensing system whereby eventually only those who have the permission of the government would be allowed to raise meat. The release of potent, long lived herbicides like these containing Aminopyralid take away our right to grow our own vegetables - all with the support of the government. No vegetables, no meat, no choices. Pretty soon the starving masses of people become totally dependent on the corporate state for their daily dole of manna. If you step out of line, forget eating.
“Control the food and you control the people.”
-Henry Kissenger
Hat tip to Sue.