Anyone who has been in gardening store knows the smell of synthetic artificial pesticides…it wafts into your nose and head as you are walking down the aisle towards the potting soil. That’s herbicide Roundup Ready, and its ilk, and there are now weeds and other plants that are resistant.
See here for an interactive timeline showing how we became a Roundup Resistant nation, in 22 states and counting.
Not good for immunity. Better would be crops grown without the three cidal sisters. Health and farming (not just feeding) go together too. Food is not only health and flavor, but information for your immune system, and a connection to the people who grow it.
Artificial synthetic chemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are probably carcinogenic: certainly for people who work with them, and for those who have canary-in-the-coal-mine immunity as well.
The report on chemicals and cancer just released by the President’s Cancer Panel is stunning about this.
From Marion Nestle, a summary of recommendations:
* Parents and child care providers should choose foods, house and garden products, play spaces, toys, medicines and medical tests that will minimize children’s exposure to toxics. (No #7 plastics, for example)
* Usefiltered tap water instead of commercially bottled water.
* Exposure to pesticides can be decreased by choosing…food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers [translation: organics] and washing conventionally grown produce to remove residues.
* Exposure to antibiotics, growth hormones, and toxic run-off from livestock feed lots can be minimized by eating free-range meat [translation: don’t eat feedlot meat].