RE: Do you think organic food is safer and why?

Harris, Craig (Craig.Harris@ssc.msu.edu)
Sat, 23 May 1998 18:27:14 -0400

> ----------
> From: Daniel Worley[SMTP:dan.worley@mindless.com]
> Sent: Saturday 23 May 1998 3:27 PM
> To: Harris, Craig
> Cc: sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu
> Subject: RE: Do you think organic food is safer and why?
at 10:51 5/23/98 , you wrote:
> >this is only partly correct . . . some states (e.g., california, new
> jersey) require all farmers to keep records of all the applications of
> all pesticides they make to their crops, including the date, the
> substance, and the amount . . . all states require all farmers to keep
> records of all the applications of restricted use pesticides (the ones
> requiring applicator certification) they make to their crops,
> including the date, the substance, and the amount
>
> I stand corrected.
please think of it as additional information, not a correction

> Do the amount used records have any way of correlating how much was
> used on each acre of land and/or what crops were being grown?
>
i'm not sure if you mean: is there a record of what was applied to each
individual acre of land; if so, the answer is no . . . the record says
that on a certain date, a certain quantity of a specific pesticide was
applied to a certain acreage of a certain crop

> In California and New Jersey, do these requirements extend to the use
> of herbicides (which are in reality pesticides)? Or is it limited to
> insecticides only?
>
all kinds of pesticides -- insecticides, nematicides, antimicrobials,
rodenticides . . . the reporting requirement does exclude shotguns for
woodchucks

> How about the use of poison baits to control animal access? Are they
> also included in the record keeping requirements?
i believe that poison baits for animal pests are supposed to be
reported, but i'm not absolutely sure

> Do any states require records be kept of regarding pesticide spray
> drift or possible drift onto the property of others? Are such things
> as weather conditions at the time the material was applied noted in
> these records?
i'm not aware that any state requires that a record be kept of drift or
possible drift . . . it is possible that some states require a record of
wind direction and velocity at time of application

> . . . different states have different requirements for access to
> these records (e.g., California requires that all records be submitted
> on a regular basis, new jersey requires submission every third year)
>
> Sounds like it could get difficult to track down a causal
> relationship between a pesticide spraying and an illness or death if
> the farmers only report annually, or worse, every three years.
> --Dan in Sunny Puerto Rico--
> dan.worley@mindless.com
much of the hazard of pesticides is chronic and cumulative, so the
records would be of most use there for an illness or condition involving
the applicator . . . suppose that a drift occured and a neighboring
person was acutely affected; i assume that if the person or the person's
estate or the person's heirs wanted to sue the applicator, a court might
require the applicator to produce the record what had been applied in
the adjoining field on the fateful day . . . and presumably medical
tests or autopsy could show that residues of the applied chemical (or
its metabolites) were in the neighbor's blood/tissues/urine . . . but
this gets far beyond my area of expertise
cheers,
craig

> craig k harris
> department of sociology
> michigan state university
> 429b berkey hall
> east lansing michigan 48824-1111
> tel: 517-355-5048
> fax: 517-432-2856
>

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