Sunflower Hello Everyone, I just completed the book Fateful Harvest (2001) by Duff Wilson, an investigative reporter from the Seattle Times.
I reveals an unbelievable story. According to Wilson, toxic waste from
industrial operations have been "recycled" and added to chemical fertilizers
and plant food for at least 25 years.
He began his investigations when Patty Martin, the former Mayor of Quincy,
Washington contacted him. Patty and a group of farmers teamed up to fight
agri-chemical companies (like Cenex) who were contaminating their land with
heavy metals and radio active materials, killing their crops, livestock, and
the soil. But they soon discovered that this practice was not only legal but
encouraged as a form of "recycling".
Here's a quote from the book which is Wilson's first Seattle Times news article
about the subject:
What's happening in Washington is happening around the United States. The use
of industrial toxic waste as a fertilizer ingredient is a growing national
phenomena...The Times found examples of wastes laden with heavy metals being
recycled into fertilizer to be spread across crop fields.....Legally
In Gore, Okla. a uranium processing plant is getting rid of low-level
radioactive waste by licensing it as a liquid fertilizer and spraying it over
9000 aces of grazing land.
In Tifton County, Georgia, more than 1000 acres of peanut crops were wiped out
by a brew of hazardous waste and limstone stone sold to unsuspecting farmers
[meaning that organic farmers are also at risk since they are able to apply
limestone (brand name LimePlus) to the their soil].
And in Camas, Clark Country, highly corrosive lead-laced waste from a pulp mill
is hauled to southwestern Washington farms and spread over crops grown for
livestock consumption.
Any material that has fertilizing qualities can be labeled and used as a
fertilizer, even if it contains dangerous chemicals and heavy metals.
The wastes come from iron, zinc and aluminum smelting, mining, cement kilns,
the burning of medical waste and municipal wastes, wood-product slurries and a
variety of other heavy industries.
Federal and state governments encourage the practice in the name of recycling
and in fact, it has some benefits: Recycling waste as fertilizer saves
comparies money and conserves precious space in hazardous waste landfills....
Among the substances found in some recycled fertilizers are cadmium, lead,
arsenic, radionuclides and dioxins, at levels some scientists say may pose a
threat to human health. Although the health effects are widely disputed, there
is undisputed evidence the substances enter plant roots [and can spread through
the entire plant, that is eaten by humans and livestock].
Just as there are no conclusive data to prove a danger, there are none to prove
the safety of the practice.
In other nations, including Canada, that lack of certainty has led to strict
regulation. There, the approach is to limit toxic wastes in fertilizer until
the practice is proven safe. Here, the approach is to allow it until it's
proven unsafe.
Although experts disagree as to whether these fertilizers are a health threat,
most say further study is needed. Yet little is underway.
Personally, I was shocked by what I read in this book...I read it from cover to
cover in a couple of days.
I recommend the book to anyone who eats.
Valarie McKenna
Community Health Student
Evergreen State College
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