‘Son of Alar’: The New Pesticide Scare Campaign
by Robert James BidinottoIn 1989, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a major environmentalist group, launched a nationwide panic over the presence on apples of alar, a chemical growth agent. On TV shows such as “60 Minutes” and “Donahue,” and in major women’s magazines, NRDC (with the aid of its expert consulting toxicologist, actress Meryl Streep) claimed that alar “might” eventually cause thousands of lifetime cancer cases due to apple consumption by preschoolers.
This carefully choreographed publicity stunt terrified parents, cost alar’s manufacturer millions, caused over $100 million in losses to apple growers—all while creating a fundraising bonanza for the NRDC.
The scare campaign was based on junk science—on experiments on laboratory rodents in which dose levels were so absurdly high that the animals were dying of simple poisoning. These tests were so shoddy that an independent panel of scientists convened by the EPA—called a Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP)—dismissed the findings as scientifically worthless.
Under political pressure to find something, however, the EPA ordered new tests on mice at dose levels that, again, were so outrageously high that 80 percent of the animals were poisoned to death. Not surprisingly, this overdosing produced the tumors the agency was looking for, and gave it the excuse to ban all use of the chemical.
I spent six months investigating this scam for a special report that appeared in the October 1990 Reader’s Digest. After its publication, many people—echoing the rock group The Who—concluded that “we won’t be fooled again” by environmentalist fear-mongers.
But now a new pesticide panic is underway. Once again, it is being incited by the NRDC, with additional litigation pressure from trial lawyers. Once again, the scare campaign rests on studies that amount to little more than “junk science.” This time, though, the target is an herbicide that plays a far more significant role in agriculture: atrazine.
Atrazine is a valuable weed-killer used to protect corn, sugar cane, and other crops. The EPA has estimated that farming without atrazine would cost corn farmers $28 an acre—the difference between getting by and going bankrupt for thousands of farms across the Midwest—and would cause sugar-cane crop losses from 10 to 40 percent. The overall cost to U.S. farmers would top $2 billion dollars annually.
Not only is atrazine effective, it is safe. The chemical has been on the market for half a century, during which time its safety has been tested to death—some 6,000 studies, here and abroad, including reviews by the World Health Organization and other international bodies.
Following a dozen years of exhaustive examination of scientific evidence about claims of possible health problems stemming from the chemical, the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs reported to Congress on February 16, 2005: “After a very careful assessment, EPA’s current view is that the available studies do not adequately demonstrate such effects. A panel of independent, external experts, the SAP, supports EPA’s position.” Concluding that cumulative risks posed “no harm that would result to the general U.S. population, infant, children or other . . . consumers,” the EPA re-registered atrazine for use in 2006.
But that was then; this is now:
* The NRDC is beating the drum to ban this critical herbicide. Last September, it released another of its junk-science reports, Atrazine: Poisoning the Well, declaring that the chemical was “linked” to all sorts of “potential” health problems, and raising the specter of unsafe concentrations in ground water. This, despite the fact that the EPA safety margin, which limits atrazine concentrations in drinking water to no more than three parts per billion, is set more than one thousand times below the threshold of any health concerns. Just as it did in engineering its alar hoax, NRDC is enlisting green sympathizers in the media to help terrorize the public. For example, it supplied material to a New York Times reporter for an article under the panic-provoking title, “Debating How Much Weed Killer Is Safe in Your Water Glass.”
* One month after NRDC released its report, the EPA ordered that atrazine—re-registered in 2006—become subject to re-re-registration. They specifically cited the NRDC report and New York Times scare piece as their reason for doing so. This, too, echoes the case of alar, when EPA, lacking any sound evidence to ban its targeted chemical, kept demanding new tests and reviews until it finally manufactured some lame excuse to do so.
* In addition to this chemophobic cadre, personal-injury trial lawyers, led by the notorious Texas law firm of Baron & Budd, have jumped in to cash in. Attorney Stephen Tillery, operating in the litigation paradise of Madison County, Illinois, is engineering class-action lawsuits against atrazine’s manufacturer and various users. Their claims of atrazine’s “harm” rest on junk-science rodent studies already rejected by the EPA’s expert Scientific Advisory Panel.
All this has left atrazine’s beleaguered manufacturer, Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc., fighting to defend its product and reputation on multiple fronts. The prospect of a ban has also left struggling farmers, who rely on this herbicide to spare their crops, worried about their financial survival. If it occurs, then an economy deep in recession would take an additional hit from crop failures and soaring food prices.
But, bad as the immediate economic costs would be, the long-term regulatory ramifications would be much worse.
To institute their green fantasies of organic agriculture and returning farmland to “nature,” the NRDC and its allies aim to make toxicology safety thresholds so stringent that no agrochemicals could past legal muster. That’s precisely why they’ve singled out atrazine. As the Wall Street Journal noted recently, “The environmental lobby also figures that if it can take down atrazine with its long record of clean health, it can get the EPA to prohibit anything.”
Seen from this perspective, the alar scare was just the opening salvo in the environmentalist barrage against man-made chemicals. Today’s atrazine scare—as Yogi Berra might put it—is “déjà vu all over again.” And Yogi might also ask those of us burdened by this unending regulatory onslaught: “How do you like them apples?”
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597 Comments
I know…..let's test these experiments on the sitting Administration and its' Czarship. Since the First lady Agitator in Chief is so health-minded perhaps, she'll be willing to 'take one' for all the kids she claims to want to save. Everyone remebers the DDT scare and because it was demonized to the point of extinction millions are now suffering with the rise of malaria, (course, these third world African nations are the ones we're supposed to redistribute the wealth to), makes one realize that a Democrat, Progressive or Liberal POS gives a damn about the suffering of the less fortunate. guess we'll just have to keep givin'em mosquito nets……for free!
There's probably an Obammie buddy manufacturing mosquito nets.
"… an economy deep in recession would take an additional hit from crop failures and soaring food prices."
What a coincidence that this fits so nicely together with everything else BHO&Co. is doing to take down this Country;
Cap-and-Tax, Card Check, Health Care, VATax, Net Neutrality, ect…ect…
A good read on how Obumble and his trolls make an argument…
Doesn't it remind you of our trolls?
10 Mental Mistakes of Obamatons http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2323...
C'mon, I know there is an attorney out there to give us the proper term, but these dirt-bag scumballs should be liable for all legal costs, as well as any actual harm suffered by any related business. In cases where the agitator group can't pay the liabilities, their officers should be subject to criminal charges if they reopen under a different name and try the same crap. Make people accountable for their actions and words and they will think twice about playing their game again.
trial lawers association are major donors to obamasoros good luck!!!!!
Rent and watch, if you can stomach it, "1000 Acres". Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jason Robards, Colin Firth, Keith Carradine, Kevin Anderson, all left wingers, "starred" in this farce. Based on fiction novel by Jane Smiley written in 1991.
It depicts American farmers as enviorment destroying, alcoholic, incompetent, wife beating, incestuous pedophile's who wives can only be satisfied sexually and emotionally by the inteligent caring nieghbor's son that left the farm. This is all caused by aterzine. Who knew!!
Our bigger problem is the EPA itself. With people like Lisa Jackson in charge "we" the American farmer had better get used to farming with a mule and a sharp stick. And the mule had better have emmissions control. Pesticides are going to be outlawed because some ivy leauger gave up Wall Street and became an organic nut job.
Thomas Jefferson said feed the population and you'll never see a revolt. Take away our pesticides and there will be anarchy.
Won't be fooled again? We've been fooled again and again and again. Can anyone say "global warming"? I mean "climate change"?
The misuse of science is a continuing pattern.
How does this new fake pesticide scare compare with the fake offshore drilling is environmentally dangerous scare?
Drill baby drill.
Madness! It's like they have a dart board to decide what insane topic do address. Once identified they pull out all the stops and attack from every angle.
DDT according to the WHO is still the most effective insecticide against mosquitoes and other varmints. Yes, it got a bad rap, but it is the chemical that destroyed yellow fever in the US.
The left loves junk science.
Hell the left loves junk period. Here most of us have accepted that Marxism doesn't work, and our President is promoting it!
You really do know nothing at all do you. If the drilling platform wasnt on a shelf and closer to shore, it would be somewhere more stable, then on top of that bad regulators getting special deals and failing to do their job. Sounds more like a government issue than a drilling one. Besides, prices will only keep going up until we can drill our own oil. Would you rather get cheap oil off our own shores or import the pricey oil from countries who dont like us?
As for a fake scare, what about Al Gores support of global warming. Now that is a fake scare with nothing to back it up, other than the BS he and his supporters spew out. Besides, why is it that when global cooling failed, it was changed to global warming, then what that failed it became climate change, so Anon boy, whats with all the name changes to an already failed fear and the push for higher taxes and energy prices to?
We better hope the EPA doesn’t figure out that if you drink too much water it’ll kill you. Instead of daily requirements, we end up with daily rations. And that the 1930s Dust Bowl wasn't all that bad.
And this BS is escalating. Now they're pushing the idea that pesticides cause ADD, ADHD.
Everyone knows what causes these dreaded 'diseases':http://encyclopediadramatica.com/ADHD
CAUTION!: do not click link if:
a) You are easily offended (it's just a joke, people)
b) You have no sense of humor
c) You suffer from said dreaded 'disease(s)'
"then on top of that bad regulators getting special deals and failing to do their job. Sounds more like a government issue than a drilling one"
Ah, I get it. It's not BP's fault. It's the regulators fault for letting them do it.
God you people are stupid.
"*Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States.
*More than 3.5 million cases in two million people are diagnosed annually.
*Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.
*One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime."
viahttp://www.skincancer.org/Skin-Cancer-Facts/
yet the EPA still allows access to sunlight!!
I know of children, some less than a year old, that are exposed to this danger nearly every day!
EPA when will you finaly bolck out the sun?!?!?!
Lawyers are effing up this country more than any other group of people.
Justamused: "…we" the American farmer had better get used to farming with a mule and a sharp stick. And the mule had better have emmissions control."
Although the topic is extremely troubling, how exactly does one go about putting an emissions regulator on a mule?
Maybe I need to quit feeding my mules cabbage and broccoli…
…declaring that the chemical was “linked” to all sorts of “potential” health problems and raising the specter of unsafe concentrations in ground water.
I just have to correct this statement:
…declaring that the Congress was “linked” to all sorts of “potential” health problems and raising the specter of unsafe concentrations in Washington DC.
Now why can't we get the EPA to issue this kind of report?
Attention: Would you like to gain wealth and power from an environmental crisis – of any sort?
Are you frustrated because you're wealthy and famous, but people just won't obey you?
NOW IS THE TIME!!!
This is your chance to fulfill your dreams.
Make hay while the sun shines (we're gonna go after Ol' Sol next…)
We never let a good crisis go to waste.
President Obama
IMHO, *everyone* has ADD or ADHD…it's just a matter of degree. Unless these are actually debilitating (and life by itself can be quite debilitating), people should grow up…victimization is one of the deadliest viruses invented to attack freedom and happiness.
P.S. Yes, I regret clicking on the link!
actually, it was a pain, simple accident, of the sort that happens eventually, sooner or later. crystallized methane gas contained in the pipe, released from mile deep ocean pressures and expanding into a monumental overpressure that none of the systems mandated by federal regulation were capable of overcoming.
These lessons will be learned from, and new technology will be developed to better enable the systems to withstand the higher potential pressures involved will be employed in dep water rigs – not because of government fines, but because it's not cost effective to absorb the cost of destroyed exploratory platforms, and lost revenue from oil lost to spills.
Corporate evolution is a darwinian process, the goverment is, in effect, a guy in a lab experimenting with selective breeding getting results more by accident than design, and too small an effect to be noticable compared with the other more effective evolutionary pressures on the target population (corporations).
Educate yourself. And get an account, if you want to engage into extended bouts of petulance and textual bomb throwing.
I didnt say it wasnt BPs fault, as they are equally responsible. But I was bringing forth that it goes beyond BP there. Think about it, BP was the one giving those special deals to the regulators.
God Anon, you are beyond dumb as hell, you are what Carlos Mancia calls a "DeDeDe". You are dumber than dumb, more idiotic than most idiots, and stupiditiy knows no bounds.
Meryl Steep movies are verboten in our house since my spouse's family were multi-generational orchardists who were ultimately bankrupted by the Alar scare that was fed by her "expert" opinion to Congress. (They're poisoning our children!") In less than a week the per bushel price of apples dropped below cost. You know … you can TRY to resist being a conspiracy theorist, but so many of these things one on top of the other on top of the other on top of the other and you can't help starting to wonder if there IS a concerted effort to bankrupt the economy.
This is SICKENING!
Give any ADD kid a playstation, and see just how bad his 'attention deficit' is…….
it's not a disorder, it's a lack of self control….
Anon, even knowing you are a paid activist…
Off shore drilling is regulated.
The doomed rig was inspected by the appropriate regulating authority, and regularly.
THE RIG BURNED AND SANK ANYWAY!
Maybe regulation is not a silver bullet for preventing mistakes, disasters or malfeasance.
Regulation ONLY brings a false sense of security. It, IN FACT, offers a mechanism for increased corruption.
You can pay off an inspector; you cannot pay off physics or chemistry.
Just knowing Baron and Budd is involved is enough for me to think junk science.
"These lessons will be learned from, and new technology will be developed to better enable the systems to withstand the higher potential pressures involved will be employed in dep water rigs – not because of government fines, but because it's not cost effective to absorb the cost of destroyed exploratory platforms, and lost revenue from oil lost to spills."
You truly are a moron. After damaging the gulf that who knows when it will recover, you figure as long as they learned something it's OK.
It's about the loss of life and the destruction of the fisheries, wetlands, beaches, you jackass. Not whheter BP figured out how to be more profitable.
God you people are stupid.
"I didnt say it wasnt BPs fault, as they are equally responsible"
You are an effing retard. BP has openly admitted they are responsible for the cleanup costs. I suppose you believe they just want to be nice to the fishies.
Good God you people are stupid.
Sorry 'bout that.
Yes, without "victims" to exploit, Regressives have nothing.
Gee, are you wishing harm on "the sitting administration" and the first lady?
And you've convinced yourself that DDT, a persistent chemical that takes year to decompose, is perfectly safe? Did you just wake up from being frozen in a block of ice for 30 years?
Better yet, watch "Food, Inc." to learn how corporate agribusiness and its cohorts in the regulatory agencies have conspired to make the unhealthiest food cheapest, mainly by subsidizing corn to the point where it's below market value……how the little guy farmer has been bought out or shoved aside by industrial food production….how Monsanto drives out farmers who refuse their Frankenfood GMO products and shuts down seed cleaners.
Um, they could have installed a better blowout preventer like the ones used in the North Sea, but they were not required to. The best one was more expensive and since they weren't forced to use it, they didn't. How does that fit in with your magical "corporate evolution" and cost-effectiveness?
Right. So after the Exxon Valdez we should have banned oil tankers, right? In fact, we shoul;d ban airliners, too, because they crash sometimes.
And you have the nerve to call people "stupid."
"It's about the loss of life and the destruction of the fisheries, wetlands, beaches." Point to some. Go ahead, jackass.
Let's get this straight- the EPA is demanding re-re-certification based on a NRDC tract???
Jesus, the inmates really are running the asylum.
LOL!
The cure to ADD is a spanking and actually telling your child that dreaded forbidden word….NO! I might just tattoo the word NO on my forehead, that way I won't have to say it my kids anymore, just point to it!
Everyone knows they are taking responsibility, but they arent the only ones responsible, and you know that to. I never said I was on BPs side and even I know they could care less about the fishies. To them, its just an inconvient payoff. This is what happens when big corporations get cozy with big government. They both giving eachother special deals, benifits and exemptions, and that is what happened here. Since they had an accident due to poor regulation and bad regulators taking special benifits from the corporation.
Anon, can you not see the simple truth behind the issue.
This article is a prime example of the industry-driven propaganda used to counter the progress of real science. Do you expect anyone of significance to believe that this author is providing an objective analysis? It's just another corporate-inspired hit piece on public advocacy and the real issue of pesticide and herbicide toxicity. Profits are more important than people's live to you.
"Um, they could have installed a better blowout preventer like the ones used in the North Sea, they were not required to"
Exactly. More regulation is the answer not less
Why would they change a winning tactic so long as there are willing dupes? They did the same thing with DDT and with Saccharin. Never underestimate the laziness of the masses.
""It's about the loss of life and the destruction of the fisheries, wetlands, beaches." Point to some. Go ahead, jackass."
Eleven workers were killed. Dead. No longer with us. Forever.
God you people are stupid.
Probably because they assumed the temperature differential between the north sea and the gulf would mitigate the methane crystalization problem – since it's an issue of temperature as well as pressure.
The EPA banned DDT in the 60's because of a knee jerk emotional response to scientifically flawed and biased studies, and as a result millions have died of malaria, even though we now know that the dangers of DDT were massively overstated. Ergo, by your logic, the EPA should be regulated, since it's actions have resulted in the deaths of millions.
This is what is called a logical fallacy.
To Grouchonotkarl;
Amen Brother!! Jane Fonda did the same to the beef industry in the 80's. Little beotch wasn't happy with sypathizing with the CONG, she destroyed beef prices with her cancer scare. Oprah tried the same B.S., but this time the National Cattleman's Association threatened to sue the boss woman. And, you know the American people just are not willing to put up with this crap anymore. Sacharin forever baby!!!!!!!!!!!
"Anon, can you not see the simple truth behind the issue."
Of course I can. Profits first. Profits second. And profits third. And when they say ot is about profits it means it is even more about profits. Just like every other business that has ever existed.
Anyone who believes anything elase is hopelessly naive.
And it's the duty of the government to put in safeguards to protect the public. And after 30 years of conservative rules we really suck at it.
And we are now reaping what we have sown.
It's kind of ironic that the ignorant racist teatards in the south will suffer the most. And keep those trial lawyers the hell out of there. We know they are only profiteers and have no interest in justice for the fisherman who just went bankrupt.
I've spent my time on the gulf coast and won't be going back EVER. To hell with those ignorant crackers. They got what they voted for. I hope they enjoy themselves.
prince william sound has recovered very nicely, despite the efforts of environmentalists, and the warnings of environmentalists that the damage would remain for thousands of years.
What we know now, is that ecology is fully equipped to assimilate large spills of oil through bacterial action. That's why more oil than this spill in the gulf seeps into the water naturally every year, without any harm to the environment. While there may be short term effects on the coastline and the sea life in the area, the damage will not be lasting, and the area will recover whether we're all out there scrubbing rocks with Dawn, or not.
Do some independent research, and some independent thinking.
I posit to you, that while you think everyone who disagrees with you is *stupid*, it's far worse to be willingly ignorant.
The logical fallacy lies in your false analogy of DDT and blowout preventers.
And your delusion lies in claiming that the dangers of DDT were massively overstated. DDT is a "persistent" chemical. Look it up and research the significance of that. Why do you think the vast majority of herbicides and pesticides today are non-persistent, meaning they break down relatively quickly with exposure to sunlight?
DDT was fairly safe for humans – just probably not for birdies. DDT is attributed with thin eggshells in the Bald Eagle (which still hasn't completely recovered) though the studies that I've read didn't actually eliminate other sources as contributing, primary, or sole causes of the eggshell wall thinning.
As for toxicity to humans, the best studies only indicated a slight correlation to cancer rates, not a conclusive. Additionally, DDT affects on fetal health (the other claim) are anecdotal at best. If you care to educate yourself on the matter, the wikipedia entry is OK, but the external links from there to the actual studies reveal the true language . . . and expose the wiki authors' nearly baseles biases against DDT.
As a real farmer who has actually used atrazine over many years I can attest to the authors statement
that it has been under attack for several years. The recommended dosage, for lack of a better descrip-
tion, has been reduced and reconfigured many times in an effort to placate the environmental extremist,
who have too much influence over EPA.
This media blitz has to do with the new environmental extremist campaign called 'Romantic Agrarian'
production. I kid you not, the Regime is behind this Romantic Agrarian notion that we can produce
sufficient food on 5 acre family tended plots of land to feed the entire USA. Sounds like China to me.
May I explain to those who have never tended a 5 acre garden, it would require at least 2 folks working
10/ 12 hours a day for the 90 to 120 day growing season. Guess how many calories those 2 folks burn
digging, hoeing, and crawling for those 90/ 120 days? Ever heard the expression, he eats like a field
hand?
Producing food by hand, burns almost as much energy as is produced by the exercise. Sound familiar?
Does this remind you of the ethanol debate? 'Romantic Agrarianism' coming to your local USDA service
center. The Regime wants this, they will be supporting an all out campaign to brainwash the American
public to want it too.
Just remember, if Romantic Agrarianism is foisted on mainstream production agriculture, there will be food
shortages in the US. If all chemical use is banned, there WILL be worms in your apples, peaches, and let-
tuce. These ARE statements of fact, if the Regime and their EPA are not stopped.
This is the beginning of the Regime's assault on the agriculture sector. Remember folks,
IF YOU EAT, YOU'RE INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE !
BP openly acknowledged that they would pay for the cleanup costs, which is not quite the same as claiming responsibility.
You've got a lot of nerve calling other people such names, when the party you're allied with excoriates their opponents for using the same language.
Grow up. And get an account.
Provide a link and I'd be happy to read it.
But tell me why I should believe anything you post?
You still deny that Obama cut taxes for 95% of us. And that's about as simple as the ABC's. And I'm supposed to buy into your it isn't very bad scenario?
MystWlker is a fraud.
He pretends to know something about offshore drilling and pesticides yet the truth is he can't understand that Obama cut taxes for 95% of us.
Oh, and he's stupid as well.
I know I thought the same thing!
Yeah. And coal miners sometimes die, and lumberjacks, and commercial
fisherman. Guess we should ban all heavy industry, because we can't have
death in Rainbow Unicorn Land.
"BP openly acknowledged that they would pay for the cleanup costs, which is not quite the same as claiming responsibility."
You really are a unbelievable moron.
Do you honestly believe they will pay for cleanup costs just to be nice guys?
Unbelievable.
It was bad not only for eagles but for many other species of wildlife. Eagles were just the most sensational. DDT undergoes "biomagnification" when it enters an ecosystem's food chain due to its persistence (non-ability to break down). As the chemical goes up the food chain from primary producers and little fish, to bigger fish and then the top predators who eat the bigger fish, its toxic effects get magnified and those top predators are severely affected.
If you care to educate yourself on the matter, get a book on ecotoxicology and specifically look up "persistence" and "biomagnification."
You're the one choosing yto be willingly ignorant, you do your own damned research.
If you even are capable of an unbiased web search. which I doubt. You can't even sign up for a free account.
Why should anyone believe what you post, when you can't even stay on topic, and the only references *you* ever link to are well documented to be biased and unreliable?
You're just going to dismiss any link I provide, regardless of the source, so I'm unwilling to waste my time educating someone who refuses to consider the remotest chance they may be wrong.
But I'll give you this one for free – federal cigarette taxes were increased in early 2009, AFTER obama had been in office for months. Now, unless you can PROVE that this tax affects less than 5% of the population, I'm going to dismiss you now as a hopelessly uneducable, intellectually stratified nitwit.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/01/cigarette.tax/in...
Hope you live in a bug free climate JPA, because you expose yourself to much more toxic products
when you have your local exterminator work in and around your home.
More chemicals are used by homeowners for weed and disease prevention on lawns and ornamen-
tals than in all of production agriculture in the US. If you believe your own statements, you are poison-
ing yourself with your weed free lawn, in an effort to win the 'prettiest place on the block contest'. OOpsie!
Some 3000 people dies as a direct result of Clinton ignoring the threat of bin Laden and radical islamic terrorism. Ready to go after the government for that? Or is this just because you get an emotional thrill from going after those *evil oil companies*?
Again:
"But I'll give you this one for free – federal cigarette taxes were increased in early 2009, AFTER obama had been in office for months. Now, unless you can PROVE that this tax affects less than 5% of the population, I'm going to dismiss you now as a hopelessly uneducable, intellectually stratified nitwit. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/01/cigarette.tax/in... "
further, since over 45% of americans pay no taxes, HOW CAN THEIR TAXES BE CUT?
A free government check is NOT a tax cut, when you owe no taxes to begin with.
Now go crawl back under your rock.
How many people die each year from Malaria which would have been pretty much eradicated except for the worldwide banning of DDT – also based on Junk Science.
The environmentalists have a lot, a *lot* of blood on their hands.
http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.html
"Yeah. And coal miners sometimes die, and lumberjacks, and commercial
fisherman. Guess we should ban all heavy industry, because we can't have
death"
Yeah people die. So what's 11 more. Even though it could have prevented. Good thinking.
Tell that to the families you ignorant fool. The idea is to keep death and destruction to a minimum.
Good God you people are stupid.
My heart is broken to hear of your families bankruptcy. Apples were the example at that time, now
the Regime will move through each crop or sector to cripple us one by one. I wonder what percen-
tage of the apples we consume now are even produced in the US. As farmers we all listened and
realized what was happening to the orchardist, however we had no way to communicate effectively.
Hopefully with the help of the net we will be able to muster sufficient resistance to this Regime attack.
IF YOU EAT, YOU'RE INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE !
"Some 3000 people dies as a direct result of Clinton ignoring the threat of bin Laden and radical islamic terrorism. Ready to go after the government for that?"
Too funny! Painted yourself into a corner with your idiotic oil spill remarks.
So what to do? Bring out the Clinton Osama bin Laden lies!
George Bush was the one who ignored the warning "Osama bin Laden determined to attack with the U.S. using airplanes" And yeah I was ready to vote Bush out of office for that.
God you people are stupid. And pathetic.
BS ALERT…………I DETECT TALKING POINTS, YOU ARE IN THE COMPANY OF A PROPONENT
OF THE REGIMES LATEST ASSAULT………………..ROMANTIC AGRARIANISM is the dream of these
ZEALOTS…………their vision WILL NOT produce sufficient food to meet US citizens expectations.
Just following your own ever-changing subject, loser.
You posited the argument that loss of life justifies regulation and intervention, I simply applied your own argument to a larger loss of life.
Clinton had the same warnings too, and not vague warnings of planning an unspecified attack, but actual bombings, in various embassies, and on a U.S. warship. What did HE do, besides lobbing a couple of cruise missiles at camels to try to fix his dropping popularity while he was busy getting caught committing perjury?
Massive Fail.
Oh, where do I start? The chemicals used by exterminators and homeowners are not PERSISTENT chemicals like DDT. They break down rather quickly and are not as toxic.
I don't use any chemicals on my lawn or garden because I recognize that they are unnecessary and harm beneficial plant and insect species.
Oh please, Obama is continuing with the same old system of massive farm subsidies that prop up industrial corn farming and meat production. $40 billion a year is funneled to giant agribusiness (you too?) which is the largest lobbying group in Washington. Obama is not doing anything to change this.
I guess you are OK with the fact that almost no one would be able to grow their own food and we have become dependent on a massive centralized industrial food system that makes a hamburger cheaper than a head of broccoli?
God, anon is stupid.
The article is about atrazine, not DDT. Go fight that battle somewhere else TROLL
And the damn eagle shell study was proved to be fraudulent, but that doesn't seem to inhibit
your continuing to use it. Did you get your degree from Uof East Anglia?
Every business is out for profits, profits are what businesses need to survive, expand, R&D, taxes, hire, and better quality of server and/or product. Since your in a business of somekind, you should full well know this. Even the government is after a profit, its called taxes and that is their revenue. Profits are not the evil one should be after, but the people behind the problem. Besides, how is it profitable for an oil company to make such a reckless move, it is more so about avoiding regulations and poor regulators.
Why does everything that doesnt agree with your logic always lead to racism. Dont you think its more about policy than race. Besides, I could careless if our president was a Wookie, if his policies are good Id vote for him.
Something else your missing, the government itself is a profiteer, and they dont show any interest in the people they serve, only the groups that give them more money (SEIU for example). Why else do you think they will push for more taxes and more spending as we try to move forward, afterall, how else do you think all these bills will be paid for?
The National Cattleman's Assn, now known as the National Cattleman's Beef Assn, did sue Oprah
Winfrey, and she beat the wrap. The trial was held in Amarillo, TX and Oprah testified and attended
several days of the trial.
Save Us tax dollars. Give the EPA to Mexico.
I suggest you start reading about DDT here. Not from some left leaning web site.
http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.html
Sorry Greg I hadn't read all the way through the comments before I posted that same link in response to another poster. It's actually a great read and I suggest everyone read it.
Tons of backed up facts there pertaining to the fraud of the science behind the banning of DDT.
I agree the environmentalists have blood on their hands but they don't care. They believe that saving the environment is worth the loss of human life.
Are you all caught up in conspiracy theories or what? No talking points here. Are you actually dispurint anything in my post?
Food, Inc. exposes the corrupt nature of federal government and corporate powers, something this site should want to talk about. No one said anything about "romantic agrarianism."
Just because you and maybe JunkScience says the study was fraudulent doesn't make it true. The conclusions on DDT were based on many studies, not just one. Partisan hacks hate good science.
He promised not to raise taxes, and he did. That's the long and short of it.
You lose.
Oh, so I should read about DDT from a right-wing partisan hack website like Junk Science, from a Fox News op-ed contributor Steven Milloy?
I read scientific journal articles, not partisan junk.
They've already told the government to not bother, they'll handle the cleanup themselves
You ought to keep up to date.
Moron.
He did not raise taxes. He cut taxes.
$250 Billion dollars worth.
Let me guess, the same scientific journals that claim the AGW is real, and the world is doomed unless we collapse our economy and go back to the stone age. Would those be the ones you are referring too?
The powers that be are already doing it. Vitamin D is now a must for all breastfed babies – no exposure to sunlight is recommended.
Saying "But he did!" proves nothing. Document it.
And try to explain, in the twisted circular thought process that passes for logic in your cognitive wasteland, how he can cut taxes for the over 45% of americans who OWE NO TAXES?
You're an egregious waste of bandwidth. I hope your parents aren't paying by the byte.
This article is about atrazine and the effect its removal from the market would have on grain
production in the US. Evidently you have no expertise in the area since you continually attempt
to change the subject.
Wealthy societies, like the USA, CHOOSE to eat more protein, and the American farmer gives
them what they choose, with the help of the US Gvt. That Gvt policy has been continued through
Dem and Rep administrations because they realize, a full belly results in a docile populace.
Other than that fact of life it's not MY call. I vote for the most conservative candidate I can find,
on either side of the aisle, but will not defend the current policies of USDA or EPA.
BROCCOLI BURGER ANYONE? Remember, If you eat, you're involved in agriculture.
A tax increase is raising taxes.
How did he cut taxes for the 45% of americans that don't owe any tax at the end of the year, and get full refunds?
He can't, and he didn't.
Your post is stupid. And you are an idiot.
The government is not nor should it be a profiteer. The government is us you effing retard. And if you don't like whose running things elect better people.
And the teatards are right to be angry. They are just angry at the wrong folks. Obama's been in office a little past a year. And he's done a good job stabilizing the economy after Bush and the GOP ran us into a depression.
We're gaining jobs you dolt! Gaining. For 4 consecutive months! The most in 4 years.
We were losing 1/2 million a month when Obama took over,
"They've already told the government to not bother, they'll handle the cleanup themselves"
And we should just trust them to do it, right? No need to check up on them or anything like that, right? That'd be way too much government intrusion into a private companie's God given right to maximize profits, right?
God you people are stupid.
Hmm, amazing how a self-proclaimed conservative can support the biggest form of subsidy in this country.
Pesticide regulations and related subjects are complex issues and cannot be boiled down to simplistic partisan ridicule like the above article.
"Saying "But he did!" proves nothing. Document it."
Here you go. Try not to hurt yourself.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/08/obama-has-...
"How did he cut taxes for the 45% of americans that don't owe any tax at the end of the year, and get full refunds?"
An unbelievably stupid post.
And if you didn't pay any taxes you got nothing. If you did pay taxes, 95 percent of us benefited.
Try this, idiot.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/08/obama-has-...
Okay JPA
1st -the story had many sources, you had none.
this means youre a troll and suck at life.
2nd- Teen Beat and Cosmo are NOT scientific journals.
3rd- not having DDT has caused the death of millions of aferican children,
but you dont care, their aferican- you racist.
4th- if banning this chemical (wich has been used safly for 50 yrs) raises the cost of food,
who will suffer most from that?
If you said farmers and working poor, then youd be correct.
However liberal facists never seem to care about poeple starving to death.
They didnt care in Russia, they didnt care in China and they wont care here.
I've followed Robert James Bidinotto for some time now on Hannity,
Beck, and Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader.
I want to suggest that everyone here also read his other articles:
Mercury: Why Fish Can't Get Enought Of It
DDT: The Other White Meat
Crude Oil: It Will Actually Increase Under Water Life
Scientific Method: Is This Just A Ploy By Liberals To
Turn Us Into A Marxist Nation?
"Anon, even knowing you are a paid activist… "
If true? It's not. But what makes the difference?
Are my posts worth more if I'm paid for them? Less?
It seems to me they should be judged on their content.
But that's just me. Dumbass.
"No one said anything about 'romantic agrarianism'."
I ain't no one……… and I brought it up, because of your whining lies about small farms being
unable to survive in the current ag/ economic environment, and your statement that small
seed cleaning businesses cannot survive, another lye.
I brought up 'romantic agrarianism' because that is exactly what you are advocating, and when
I see a spade, I call it a spade.
So did you have a small seed cleanng business and go bankrupt? Sorry for your hardship.
However you tend to show up on BG each time there is a column on anything ag-related to
spout your tripe. Same talking points each time, grain farmer BAD, veggie grower GOOD.
Is that ridiculous documentary the only source you have? There have been several of these
made on various sectors of production agriculture, for those who are susceptible to brain-
wash tactics.
Tout that POS all you want, folks realize the producers of that sort of film have an agenda
and a vested interest in demonizing certain products and do so by telling half-truths and
insinuating evil into the imagination of the viewer.
IF YOU EAT, YOU'RE INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE !
First you say they aren't going to pay, then when I show you they've told the government don't bother, they'll handle it all, you switch gears to "But they won't pay!"
Your argument is based on the fallacy called "appeal to probability", which assumes that because something could happen, it is inevitable that it will happen.
Just because you hate capitalism (even while you profit from it), doesn't mean that all your wildest tinfoil hat wearing bedwetting anti capitalist conspiracy theories are automatically true.
And now that you're using fallacies to support your argument, we're all done here.
From the article:
"But first – what do I mean by “working households”? By “households”, I mean simply tax filers. There were about 143 million individual or joint income tax returns filed in 2007, according to the IRS (this is the most recent year for which statistics are available). By “working” I mean that the taxpayer had some sort of taxable income, which was true of about 111 million of the 143 million returns.
This is different than saying that 95+ percent of all Americans will receive a tax cut. Barack Obama sometimes confused his language about this on the campaign trail. He was wrong when he did so. Illegal immigrants, some non-working individuals and families, some retirees, etc. will not be assisted by any of the tax cuts. It’s also somewhat ambiguous whether, say, a 7-year-old kid is considered as having had his taxes cut if his daddy is having less withheld from his paycheck."
You still haven't shown how people who owe no taxes when they file, and get full refunds, got a tax cut. Since that's over 45% of the country, that means only perhaps 55% of the country could have gotten a tax cut to begin with.
In big boy math, 55% is much less than 95%.
Therefore, you are wrong. Period. End of discussion. Go play in traffic.
richardporter, why does Breitbart.com always pick the low lying fruit to sell their message?
I love eagles,
but the fraudulent study cannot be used in your argument, as it is dishonest on your part to
continue to cite it.
Do you continue to believe in global warming, also?
"Partisan hacks", project much?
IF YOU EAT, YOU'RE INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURE !
To go along with Myst. A tax credit is NOT the same thing as a tax cut.
God you are stupid Anon.
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