Look At This
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German Agriculture Goes Green
CBC Newsworld Newscast, 11 January 2001
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder says it’s time for Europe to turn away from factory farms, and get back to nature. In a
response to the country’s BSE crisis, Schröder said Wednesday, ‘We have to produce what is healthy, not just what can be sold.’
He backed up his words with action, choosing a member of the Green Party (Renate Kuenast) as his new Agriculture Minister,
giving her sweeping new powers: the responsibility for farming policies as well as for consumer protection and safety.
Germany’s Agriculture and Health Ministers resigned (two days prior to this announcement) over accusations that they mishandled
the BSE crisis. The Ministers admitted being complacent about the dangers of the disease.
A As part of a major project for its fiftieth anniversary year the Soil Association is coordinating a comprehensive research
programme into the costs of modern food production systems in the UK. This will:
1. Undertake a review of the external costs of agriculture in the key areas of: Health, Environment, Social (including employment),
Animal Welfare, and Developing Countries;
2. Apply appropriate mechanisms that will allow these external costs to be reflected in economic terms;
3. Propose a policy framework for agriculture that will ensure that both the real costs associated with food production are reflected
in the price of food, and that public expenditure is effectively directed towards the encouragement of more benign forms of
agriculture.
Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate
Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered long before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer
and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides, and 30
percent of all insecticides carcinogenic. A 1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that pesticides might cause an
extra 4 million cancer cases among Americans, The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms
and can also harm humans. In addition to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth defects, nerve damage and genetic mutations.
Acres, Evaluation the Pitfalls of Chemical Fertilizers-Synthetics in Agriculture.
Protect Farm Workers
A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had six times more risk than non-farmers of contracting
cancer. In California, reported pesticide poisonings indicate farm workers suffer the highest rates of occupational illness in the
state. Farm worker health is also a serious problem in developing nations, where pesticides use may be poorly regulated. Acres,
Evaluating the Pitfalls of Chemical Fertilizers.
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