U.S. Farmers Use (lethal) Pesticide Despite Treaty

[donsu]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051127/ap_on_re_us/pesticide_politics;_ylt=AocMdy1.e4evK2rtta4x8c2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-


Shoppers rifle through store shelves brimming with succulent tomatoes and plump strawberries, hoping to enjoy one last round of fresh fruit before the Western growing season ends. There is no hint of a dark side to the blaze of red.

-snip-

Cheri Alderman, a teacher whose classroom borders a farm, fears her students could inhale a dangerous whiff of the fumigant as it drifts from the adjacent strawberry field. "A little dribble of poison is still poison," she says.

The concerns stretch globally.

Other nations watch as the United States keeps permitting wide use of methyl bromide for tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, Christmas trees and other crops, even though the U.S. signed an international treaty banning all but the most critical uses by 2005

The chemical depletes the earth's protective ozone layer and can harm the human neurological system, an increasing concern as people settle further into what was once just farm country.
-snip-
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I wouldn't call them farmers

[vonslagle]

1. What's worse is ddt

The New York Times, house organ for the Reicht Wing, published a piece of fiction this morning, obviously in an attempt to appease the petrochemical corporations who want to start selling DDT again:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/nyregion/27bugs.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=3f15540faed107cf&ex=1290747600&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss