Pesticide use under attack in Northern Hemisphere
              (by Kaley Kennedy)

Most countries in the Northern hemisphere are experiencing the beginnings of the spring season. In the past few years, controversies surrounding pesticide use have been as much a part of this time of the year as such spring staples as sprouting flowers and robins in flight.

For about five years, Prince Edward Island, Canada's smallest province, has been implementing and amending its Pesticide Controls Act. There is great debate about whether the bill is doing too much or too little. In March, Ron MacKinley, a Liberal Member of PEI's Legislative Assembly, spoke out publicly against changes in fees and regulations that came into effect in January. MacKinley claims that the new higher fees are just an attempt by the Province's Environment Minister, Jamie Ballem to get more money. "Jamie Ballem is in the back pocket of farmers; just grabbing more money, is what he's doing. It's ridiculous," MacKinley told the CBC this March.

Some say that the province is still not doing enough. Sharon Labchuk, provincial leader of the Green Party in PEI, recently called for more public information on the use of pesticides on farms in the province. Currently, farmers are required to make logs of their pesticide use, which is handed over to the government and made available to doctors, as well as provincial environment officers. Labchuk, though, argues that this information should be made available to the public. She also contends that farmers should be required to mark fields that are being sprayed with pesticides, just as residential lawns are required to.

The debate in PEI comes right in the midst of a number of incidents involving farm workers who were exposed to pesticides in the United States. In Idaho, a number of farm workers required hospitalization after working in an onion field. The roughly two dozen who were hospitalized are now planning on lobbying legislators for a law that would require employers to warn workers of the health risks and to better protect workers against pesticide exposure.

Similarly, farm workers in California are currently in a battle to pass legislation that would see pesticide laws better enforced. One worker, Benito Saloman, said at the public hearings held by the state that these new laws are still not doing enough to protect the workers. Saloman said that he suffers shakes, crippled lungs, and failing kidneys due to pesticide exposure while working in orchards that had recently been sprayed. He was not even provided with water to clean his hands after working in orchards. Saloman's employer also encouraged workers to sign a waiver that would absolve him should the worker get sick. This practice is illegal in California.

A number of civil law suits currently being fought, mainly in the United States, reflect Western society's growing concern with pesticide use. One such case against the produce company Ag-Mart involves five families whose children were born with severe birth defects, including one child born without arms or legs, after working in one of Ag-Mart's tomato fields. The company is also in trouble with government inspectors in both Florida and North Carolina, where they have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for violations of federal and state pesticide laws.

Scientists argue now that the problems of pesticides are no longer fast acting and obvious, though, like the pesticides used in the past. The chemicals now being used for pesticides have not been adequately tested for long-term effects. Pesticide exposure, then, is not only a concern for the farmers working the field, but also for all people who consume fresh produce, grains, and processed foods.

Wendy Mesley, a journalist for the CBC, Canada's public Broadcasting Corporation, recently shed light on the amount of environmental toxins to which average people are exposed. Mesley was diagnosed with breast cancer in the fall of 2004, despite maintaining a healthy lifestyle and refraining from smoking. In her short CBC documentary, Chasing the Cancer Answer, Mesley points a finger at environmental factors for the increase in cancer cases over the past three decades.

Mesley had her blood tested for various toxins after being diagnosed. The screening found PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in Mesley's blood. Both substances are known carcinogens that are banned in Canada. Despite usage bans, chemicals continue to be present in our environment, and consequently in our bodies. Knowing that these substances have been banned for years and continue to be present in the environment and our bodies, it would seem only logical that the addition of more chemicals into the environment would be avoided. The issue is much more complicated.

There lies a huge ethical dilemma facing farming and food production. The agricultural industry is of huge importance to many economies, including Canada's. Without sufficient yields, food prices would increase, jobs would be lost, and Canada's economy would essentially suffer. But what price do we have to pay for agricultural success? Surely, no one supports cancer and birth defects. With what should the government be primarily concerned; individual health or economic health? For some, the answer may be quite clear; however, the developed world finds itself in a cyclical predicament. If they choose the health of the individual, the economy will take a huge blow and society's vulnerable will find themselves in worse health than before, but if they choose economic health and cancer rates soar, the economy suffers.

Perhaps rather than choosing personal health or economic health, governments should stop being strong supporters of corporate farming and focus on smaller, independent farms and more sustainable farming practices. Focusing on promoting locally-grown food and organic farming, as well as supporting small-scale farming over factory farming are the kind of plans that will effect change in the long term if governments choose to take them seriously.

Sources

“Farm workers want stronger pesticide laws.” KTVB News. 19 Mar. 2006. 21 Mar. 2006. http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/031906cckrKtvbpesticides.407adee6.html.

“Green party calls for stronger pesticide laws.” CBC News. 16 Mar. 2006. 21 Mar. 2006. http://www.cbc.ca/pei/story/pesticide-rules060316.html .

Hampson, Sarah. “Cancer, and the battle after.” Globe and Mail. 04 Mar. 2006. 21 Mar. 2006.

“MacKinley blasts pesticide rules.” CBC News. 07 Mar. 2006. 21 Mar. 2006. http://www.cbc.ca/pei/story/pe-mackinley-pest-20060307.html.

Meinhardt, Jane. “Seeing red: lawsuit latest issue for plagued tomato grower.” Tampa Bay Business Journal. 17 Mar. 2006. 21 Mar. 2006. http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2006/03/20/story4.html

Shaw, Hank. “Stronger pesticide laws urged.” RecordNet 17 Mar. 2006. 21 Mar. 2006. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060317/NEWS01/603170318/1001.

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