predictable harm. Continued reliance on pesticides puts citizens at unnecessary risk.
The time is ripe for our policy makers to reverse course, to reject the risks and finan-
cial burdens foisted upon society by pesticide manufacturers—who employ battalions
of lobbyists and a vast public relations machine to impede reform at every level—and
make pesticide alternatives the norm.
The tide is turning. The public is becoming better informed and taking control of
its health and food. New pesticide-free farming and gardening methods are being
announced. These new methods are what your grandparents and great-grandparents
used. While the pesticide industry might have powerful lobbying firms in Washing-
ton, D.C., public education about this subject will ultimately prevail. History has
taken us far past the point where we could envision living without some of the ser-
vices synthetic pesticides provide, but it has also taken us to the point where we can
no longer shrug off these warnings.
Notes
- Rachel Carson,Silent Spring(Penguin Modern Classics, 2000).
- ‘‘Growing Up Toxic: Chemical Exposures and Increases in Developmental
Disease,’’Environmental Health Reports(June 23, 2004).
3.Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle, Bette Hileman,Chemical
& Energy News, (February 9, 1998): 16–18. - ‘‘Canada’s Supreme Court Supports Pesticide Ban,’’Environmental Science &
Technology(January 18, 2006). - ‘‘Organic Agriculture and America’s Rural Crisis,’’ The Progressive Populist
(2000). - J. Onstot, R. Ayling, and J. Stanley,Characterization of HRGC/MS Unidentified
Peaks from the Analysis of Human Adipose Tissue. Volume 1: Technical Approach
(Washington: D.C.: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Toxic Substan-
ces, 1987). - ‘‘Silent Spring II, Recent Discoveries Reveal New Threats of Pesticides to Our
Health,’’Third World Traveler(Food First Newsletter: Summer 1997).
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