what a sales job they did. I dont use pesticides and I dont lose a third of my 
crop - nor do I poison myself or spend the money for the toxins and the 
application equipment.
  Kirk
  Is there something fundamentally wrong with our society or is it just me?
  I cant believe the suppression of information for profits. How can that be 
reconciled?
  Came across the Gerson therapy. Not so new, "Back to Eden" was about juicing.
  But the body of evidence - OUTSIDE THE US - that it cures more than the best 
efforts of pharma is overwhelming.
  Our children are given to murderers.
  :(
  Kirk

Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
  http://www.organic-center.org/science.hot.php?action=view&report_id=99
The Organic Center :: State of Science :: Hot Science
Scientists Estimate That Pesticides are Reducing Crop Yields by 
ONE-THIRD Through Impaired Nitrogen Fixation

The Organic Center, 7/10/2007

Over the last forty years nitrogen fertilizer use has increased 
seven-fold and nearly every acre of intensively farmed, conventional 
cropland is treated with pesticides. A team of scientists explored 
the impact of pesticides and other environmental toxicants on 
symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) brought about by Rhizobium bacteria 
(Fox et al., 2007). Their findings were published June 12, 2007 in 
the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (read 
full study here).
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/104/24/10282

The team describes the critical role played by SNF in supporting crop 
yields and environmental quality. SNF has great potential to reduce 
farm production costs - a factor of growing importance as rising 
natural gas prices push upward the cost of nitrogen fertilizers. In 
Brazil, SNF from soybeans reduces production costs an estimated $1.3 
billion per year. The research by Fox et al. (2007) explored in depth 
the signaling processes between plants and bacteria colonizing plant 
roots - processes that govern the degree of SNF and the production of 
certain phytochemicals. They focused on the ways that pesticides can 
disrupt signaling and impair the efficiency of SNF. Some 30 
pesticides are known to disrupt SNF; the most widely used pesticide 
in the United States, glyphosate (Roundup) is known to be toxic to 
nitrogen fixing bacteria.

The "Conclusions?? section of the paper begins by stating:

"The results of this study demonstrate that one of the environmental 
impacts of pesticides and contaminants in the soil environment is 
disruption of chemical signaling between the host plants and N-fixing 
Rhiz(obia) necessary for efficient SNF and optimal plant yield.??

Drawing on their recent work and other published studies, the team 
projected that pesticides and other contaminants are reducing plant 
yield by one-third as a result of impaired SNF. This remarkable 
conclusion suggests one mechanism, or explanation of the 
yield-enhancing benefits of well-managed, long-term organic farming 
systems.

Source: "Pesticides reduce symbiotic efficiency of nitrogen-fixing 
rhizobia and host plants??

Authors: Jennifer E. Fox, Jay Gulledge, Erika Engelhaupt, Matthew E. 
Burrow, and John A. McLachlan.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 104, No. 24, 
June 12, 2007.


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