Duane A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator,
Webster County
October 27, 2011 Edition
It seems that I am always finding things to worry about --and this week is no different. This one however could have huge impacts on crop production and a cheap, safe and effective tool that we use to fight weeds in our crops. I have been telling about the attack on Atrazine for a couple of years now in my private pesticide applicator training classes. I have delivered presentations on how the EPA was once again looking at pulling the license on Atrazine and taking it off the market. I have written previously about the environmentalist campaign against Atrazine and other agro-chemicals, citing supporting material which include thousands of studies, including lengthy reviews by EPA scientific advisory panels itself. All of which have rejected -as spurious- the environmentalists' charges against Atrazine. But that doesn’t seem to matter. I really didn’t know why the EPA keeps revisiting this issue, but have stumbled on to it this past week. Perhaps some of you have already heard about this particular environmental movement, “Save the Frogs” and how it is working to prevent the looming "amphibian extinction crisis" that they claim is the result of evil pesticide - most notably, Atrazine. They even have National “Save the Frog Day” on April 28, 2012 to help. You can find their group at: http://www.savethefrogs.com/
These groups took their anti-chemical, anti-pesticide message directly to the steps of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year and delivered 10,012 petition signatures received from “Save the Frogs” supporters, and over 50,000 emails from supporters and other groups. This in turn forced a public comment period that started in September and will end November 14, 2011. This to me is ironic, given the fact that the EPA specifically supported the safety of Atrazine on numerous occasions and further, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international scientific bodies have all supported the safety of Atrazine. In fact, the WHO recently increased the tolerable limit of Atrazine in water from 2 parts per billion to 100 ppb. But none of these scientific facts has stopped the conspiracy of anti-pesticide activists and big-business organic marketers from spreading their anti-chemical fiction. The “Save the Frogs” campaign has taken its cause one step further by advising people to choose organic foods and has even linked to a website demonstrating the benefits of eating organic produce. It is called "Frog TV," a YouTube-and-web-based series of videos whose purpose is to show "how chemical pesticides are threatening our health." Aimed in cartoon form at impressionable children, the show features "Triball," a three-eyed mutant frog who raises their fears about "strange things happening in our bodies" due to pesticides. If you don’t believe me go to: http://www.frogtv.com/home/ I think the flavor of the day when I last got on the side was “Mushy Corn” which GMO scientists have created claiming it is a self-digesting corn, a GMO corn that actually eats itself created to make ethanol and could cross pollinate with the corn we like to eat. But the underlying premise is the evils of all agriculture chemicals. Where do they come up with this stuff?
After first terrifying mothers and their kids about pesticides on food, hormones and GMOs the website tells them to do the following: "Flex your financial muscle and choose organic for the best personal and planetary health possible. Why is organic best? No harmful pesticides." It then gives a link to a web site touting the benefits of organic food and blasting commercial farming. If you dig a little deeper, it you find that the Organic Valley Cooperative, one of the largest organic farmer cooperative businesses in the U.S., is responsible for creating the site. Environmentalism or economics, I wonder? I don’t have any problem with organic foods or the people that raise organic, but I do have problems with them tearing down those that use traditional or what I call conventional food production practices and using false science or no science at all to try to eliminate a staple and inexpensive pesticide that is the most tested pesticide on record that still passes all the tests. It’s interesting to note that according to real biologists, the loss of frog species is actually caused by the global spread of a virulent and highly transmissible fungus, which results in the lethal amphibian disease Chytridiomycosis. A major 2007 scientific study on the issue concluded: “In the absence of supportive evidence for alternative theories despite decades of research, it is important for the scientific community and conservation agencies to recognize and manage the threat of Chytridiomycosis to remaining species of frogs.” That is science based, but is never mentioned in the web sites, videos or any of their material. That to me is just wrong. They are blaming agriculture for something that is not even remotely connected to farming or farming practices. Instead of focusing on the real problem leading to frog population decline, these ‘environmental’ groups are promoting their anti-pesticide agendas. Atrazine is one of the most widely used, important crop protection chemicals around and is an extremely valuable herbicide used to increase crop yields dramatically, especially corn. To this day, there have been no reported cases of adverse health effects in humans, animals or the environment as a result of Atrazine use. So I have to say…Give us a break! What can a farmer do? Well, there is something you can do….
The US Environmental Protection Agency is now seeking public comments regarding a potential ban on Atrazine, one of safest and most widely used herbicides in the United States. The call for comments appeared in the September 14th, 2011 Federal Register. You can go to http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0586-0001 and make comments in support of Atrazine or contact me for another method of supplying your comment. The commenting period ends November 14th, 2011 so please don't delay. Believe me “Save the Frogs” is busy commenting. Ribbit!
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: http://www.webster.unl.edu/me
No comments:
Post a Comment