In a message dated 4/21/2000 9:16:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
owner-sanet-mg-digest@cals.ncsu.edu writes:
> >The irony here is that the same statistical naivety, and lack of
> >appreciation of scale is what has driven the phobia against
> >pesticide residues.
The issue of pesticide residue levels and their toxicity is only the tip of
the iceberg. The real question is: what is it about a crop that pesticides
were required to stave off predators? There is a school of thought that
believes that insects are nature's recycling troops and destroy crops that
are not suitable for consumption higher up the food chain. You could say they
are nature's Q.C. department. Unhealthy soil produces unhealthy crops which
come under insect attack. To kill the insects with pesticides is to allow an
inferior crop to enter the food chain. Unhealthy crops result in unhealthy
animals and humans. Just look at the infectious, reproductive,
immunosuppressive, degenerative, and neurodegenerative problems facing our
society. By the way, let's not define health as the suppression of symptoms
through the use of therapeutants, but as the level of vitality promoted by
life enhancing practices.
If our only concern is with the safety of the synthetic pesticides,
unfortunately, we are likely to accept organic farming which uses
non-synthetic pesticides. The use of synthetic or non-synthetic pesticides
still results in the marketing of a crop that was rejected by nature. Perhaps
it's time to shift our "phobia" of synthetic pesticide residues to a "phobia"
of crops that were produced using any insect eradication methods.
Pushing the envelope.
Alan Ismond, P.Eng.
Aqua-Terra Consultants
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