Letter to the Editor of AGRI-NEWS

From: Ed Fashing
September 5, 2002

Fifty years ago, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring spawned environmental organizations, the EPA and Earth Day. Some of her followers have unfortunately continued as if no improvement in environmental problems of the earth happened.

Editor,

Extremist environmentalists (econuts) shifted their attack from the chemical industry with its many lawyers to small chemical users like family ranchers and farmers, who have few if any lawyers or champions to defend them from injustice. Politicians have sold them out.

Carson said that no civilization “can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself and without losing the right to be called civilized.” However, no extremist environmentalist (econut) can wage war against the production sector of society without helping to destroy the food, lumber, fishing, manufacturing, and mining industries. The greedy multinational corporations are aiding such destruction.

Carson was not against use of all pesticides like many present econuts, but for restricted use of pesticides and chemicals. She was wrongly condemned by the chemical industry. As a young chemistry teacher at the University of Illinois (Navy Pier) active in the American Chemical Society, I was condemned by fellow chemists and teachers because I had my students write a book report for chemistry on the Silent Spring: “The most important book of the 20th century!”

In 1963, CBS Reports’ had the courage to air a program about Silent Spring. Today no network has the courage to air a program about the decline of and damage to the farm and ranch sector from econuts and multinational corporations because the networks openly, admittedly fear loss of advertisers and are part of huge corporations. Few main stream talk shows will even discuss the present destruction of produce markets or absurd international agreements, since they fear the power of rich advertisers and influential behind the scenes powers i.e. banks.

Today's environmentalists, who abandon extreme actions of PETA, fur coat slashers, ELF trophy home burners, Forest Service arsonists, and conservation workers “salting” lynx hairs in western states and criticized by former environmental friends. Read Nick Nichols Rules For Corporate Warriors with a forward by Greenpeace co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore, or Bjorn Lomborg’s book The Skeptical Environmentalist. Lomborg was widely criticized in January 2002, Scientific American. Another enlightening book is Patrick Michael’s Full of Sound And Fury.

“The Green Revolution” spawned GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) products Europeans will not buy from America. Some starving African countries refuse GMOs. My opposition to GMOs is monetary and a fear of transgenetic migration of resistant genes migrating into nearby plants and weeds.

Due to the UN’s Codex Alimentarius watered down pesticide rules and NAFTA & WTO-GATT permissive rules, grains and meats imported into the U.S. are contaminated with chemicals banned for U.S. usage. Untasty and contaminated foreign meats are sold in place of better U.S. products.

Multinational corporations destroy world farm markets with cheap grains subsidized by the U.S. Government with corporate welfare. Meanwhile U.S. family farmers and ranchers are condemned for taking monies that permit them to survive-so they can help produce a world produce glut.

The Chicago commodity markets hurt farmers and ranchers since they trade as many as 30 times the actual products produced with superfluous contracts. Commodity markets are a place for day traders and gamblers; there is no attempt to bring together producers, middlemen and consumers for mutual benefit as the original intent of commodity markets. The producer is squeezed between the WAL-MARTS and the packers.

Foreign consumers cannot afford multinational grains and meats at even low prices since foreign local producers are forced out of business by the monopolies.

The Department of Justice (sic) and USDA's Packers & Stockyards (GIPSA) do not request funding, adequate staffing, or seek to prosecute the New Robber Barons.

The failure of the Packer Ban in Conference Committee for the NEW Absurd Farm Bill demonstrates packer power. President G.W. Bush and USDA Ann Veneman hint they will not enforce even the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) as passed.

Remember friends in the coming election those that tell us what we want to hear and vote as their big contributors demand.