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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-21-2014 pc birdsongKremke, Kate LZFCEIVEf:Z From: Mejia, Anthony Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 8:49 AM OCT 2 0 2014 To: Kremke, Kate Subject: FW: Urgent (---,LO CITY CLERK Attachments: usda_slake_test jpg; rich_black_hums_vs_dry_fly_away_ soil jpg Agenda Correspondence 10/21/14 Public Comment Anthony J. Mejia, MMC I City Clerk cn,y of san iuis 01yls po 9C)o Palm Street: AGENDA San Lrjis Obispo, CA 93401 tel 805,78a.7:102 CORRESPONDENCE From: Annie Birdsong [anniebirdsong000 @gmail.com] Date to .a j , I +Item # n G Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2014 3:28 PM To: Marx, Jan; Smith, Kathy; Christianson, Carlyn; Carpenter, Dan; Ashbaugh, John Subject: Urgent Dear Mayor Marx and Vice Mayor Christianson, City mosquito spraying may prove to be the worst mistake in the entire history of mankind. With pollinators in extreme decline, here cities are blanketing the country in a chemical that the EPA says is "highly toxic to honeybees and other beneficial insects" in order to kill mosquitoes. It is not just honeybees in decline. Dr. Jeff Petis, who is with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, wrote: "All pollinators are threatened." Dr. Mary Purcell - Miramontes, who is with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, said in a speech, "I hope I've gotten across to you that all pollinators are threatened. That's what is meant by pollinator decline." Harvard entomologist E.O. Wilson wrote: "The evidence is overwhelming that wild pollinators are declining around the world.... Some have already suffered or face the imminent risk of total extinction." The National Academy of Sciences reported that the relative abundance of four species of bumble bees have declined by up to 96 percent. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said, "The plight of pollinators is causing worldwide concern. Not only are population numbers of many formerly abundant species dwindling, some species are disappearing altogether.... Without them, the world as we know it would not exist. Despite these facts, we have allowed their populations to decline to alarmingly low levels." Science writer Myrna E. Watanabe said in a Science Magazine article that "feral bees are essentially gone in the U.S." In a memorandum on the severity of pollinator decline, President Barack Obama said, "The number of migrating Monarch butterflies sank to the lowest recorded population level in 2013 -14, and there is an imminent risk of failed migration." He urged the nation to give the concern "immediate attention." Senator Gillibrand, a member of the U.S. Senate's Agriculture Committee, said, "With the alarming drop in pollinators, farmers across America have been suffering from a decrease in agricultural productivity." The insect extermination program by cities to eliminate mosquitoes hits our pollinators on top of other stressors, such as such as habitat loss, parasites and disease, air pollution and climate change. It is death by 1000 cuts. In the Birmingham metropolitan area, 812,080 blocks in 92 communities are sprayed. The mosquito control officials say they fog for mosquitoes in the evening when bees are not active. However, this would not be adequate to protect bees for the spray is blowing in the wind, which can coat the foliage, including the nectar and pollen. It is possible for the foliage in your yard (or your open window) to receive spray not only from the block you live on, but from hundreds of blocks away that is blowing in the wind. Leaves of flowers often exude droplets of water that bees drink. We don't want this contaminated with toxic chemicals. (Keep in mind that the spray used in Birmingham has a half -life in the soil of 30 days or less so the following days, the chemicals will still be there on the foliage, endangering pollinators.) There is much evidence that mosquito spraying is increasing or causing pollinator decline. Dr. Mark Salvato, a USFWS biologist and one of the agency's leading butterfly experts, said, "When the use of chemical pesticides was expanded for mosquito control in the northern Keys (Florida) in the early 1970s, the Schaus' Swallowtail butterfly made a'dramatic decline.' "Then when spraying was halted during two periods (1987 and 1989 -1992) the species began to recover. "It's- immediate decline when applications resumed clearly suggested the adverse affect that chemical pesticides were having on non - target species." The chemical used in Birmingham is Clark's Biomist, which contains Permethrin and Peperonal Butoxide. The EPA said, "A number of studies demonstrated that applications of formulations of Permethrin are likely to reduce the numbers and possibly eliminate populations of beneficial insects." When analyzing the drastic decline of the endangered Miami blue butterfly, entomologists at the University of California Davis, Scott P. Carroll and Jenella Loye, wrote: "A chief candidate for stress to the insect community is periodic spraying of insecticides for adult mosquito control from truck mounted foggers." An article in the Sun Sentinel said: "A rare South Florida butterfly has moved a step closer to protection under the Endangered Species Act, a measure that could defend it from the twin threats of anti - mosquito sprays and fanatical butterfly collectors." The article quoted Dave Martin a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as saying, "Mosquito spraying in the Keys harmed the Schaus swallowtail butterfly, which is listed as endangered." An article in the New York Times said: "Edward Spevak, the curator of invertebrates at the Bronx Zoo, said he received a call last week from a jogger who had found a number of dead monarch butterflies in Central Park shortly after the spraying. `She was running shortly after the truck passed,' he said, "and she started noticing all these monarchs dropping around her.' ... "He said that Bronx Zoo officials have asked the city not to spray over the zoo because of the danger to its Butterfly Zone exhibit, a caterpillar- shaped tent that houses hundreds of butterflies from around the world." The article quoted Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association, based in Morristown, N.J. as saying, "Spraying for mosquitoes can have a dramatic effect on butterfly populations." The EPA has a database of 40 incidents reported to them involving Permethrin. Here are a two of these incidents: -A municipality was sprayed with Permethrin and Piperonyl Butoxide. Several hours after application, residents began noticing hundreds to thousands of dead butterflies (mostly monarch). Analysis showed 20- 37 ppm Permethrin in butterfly samples. Minnesota, 8/23/2000. - Pinellas County Mosquito Control received a report of one to two dozen commercially- raised butterflies (dead) following community -wide spraying with Biomist 31 +66ULV with active ingredients Permethrin and Piperonyl Butoxide. Adult and caterpillar mortality occurred in a colony maintained by a local butterfly hobbyist. Florida, 4/1/2005. In defining critical habitat for the endangered for the Florida Leafwing and Bartram's Scrub Hairstreak butterflies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote: "To control mosquito populations, second - generation organophosphate (Haled) and Pyrethroid ( Permethrin) adulticides are applied by mosquito control districts throughout south Florida. The use of such pesticides (applied using both aerial and ground -based methods) for mosquito control presents a potential risk to nontarget species, such as the Florida leafwing. I woke up about the dangers of mosquito spraying when I did a story for Living Lightly magazine about students in an environmental club at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, New York, that cleaned off a vacant lot and created a lush nature sanctuary called the "Enchanted Garden." The garden had a diversity of habitats and smaller gardens within almost an acre of land. One of the gardens was a butterfly garden. A former student of Kennedy High that helped build the gardens, Abdus Salam, said in an interview that the butterfly garden had many butterflies until the city sprayed for mosquitoes. The butterflies disappeared. It is an extraordinarily serious thing to exterminate pollinators, for they are keystone species. The 200,000 plants they pollinate form the base of the food chain. Their demise threatens "the foundation of every ecosystem in the world," according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A British and Dutch study showed that in the U.K. and the Netherlands, there has been a 70 percent drop in wild flowers requiring insect pollination since the 1980s. Furthermore, 71 percent of butterfly species in these countries have decreased. A loss of plant species could cause a chain reaction that spirals out of control. Dr. Peter Raven, former Home Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences and a former member of President Bill Clinton's Committee on Advisors on Science and Technology said when a plant species is lost, an average of 10 -30 other species are also lost since some species have "specialized feeding habits." Therefore, according to him, "The diversity of plants is the underlying factor in controlling the diversity of other organisms and thus the stability of the world ecosystem." Virus. A collapse of the food chain from pollinator decline is a far greater threat than the small threat of West Nile "Ecosystem services are critical to human survival," said Dr. Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist and etymologist at the University of California, Berkeley, et al. The web of life performs many ecosystem services: Holding disease organisms in check (eating bacteria, funguses and dead organisms), decomposing waste, aerating the soil, purifying the water, creating oxygen, pollinating, dispersing seeds, creating soil fertility, stabilizing the soil, creating water holding capacity in the soil and so much more. Albert Einstein once wrote that "If the bee disappeared from the globe, man would only have four years of life left, no more bees, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." Dr. Paul Ehrlich says unless appropriate steps are taken to preserve earth's plants, animal and microorganisms, humanity faces catastrophe fully as serious as a thermonuclear war. Dr. E.O. Wilson said "The worst thing that can happen to the human race is not energy depletion, economic collapse or conquest by a totalitarian regime. It is the loss of species diversity. IS MOSQUITO SPRAYING BRINGING AQUATIC BIOTA TO THE BREAKING POINT? When it rains, the chemicals from city mosquito spraying drain off the foliage, land and roads and make their way into culverts on the sides of roads and from there into streams and rivers. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the mosquito control spray used in Birmingham, Clark's Biomist, a petroleum distillate which contains Permethrin and Piperonyl Butoxide, has a photolysis half -life in water -- breakdown in the presence of light -- of 80 days. The Environmental Protection Agency says, " Permethrin is highly toxic to both freshwater and estuarine aquatic organisms. Most agricultural, public health, and down - the -drain scenarios modeled resulted in exceedances in the acute risk quotient (RQ) for freshwater and estuarine fish, invertebrates, and sediment organisms. The agricultural and public health scenarios also showed the potential for chronic risks to estuarine and /or freshwater organisms. Further, there is a potential concern for direct effects to a variety of aquatic organisms." S.C. Schimmel et al said " Permethrin is very highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates and exhibits a high bioconcentration factor in aquatic organisms due to its insolubility in water." Permethrin sorbs to sediments and can be there for more than a year. The sediment is where a lot of organisms, such as worms and other invertebrates, live that form the base of the food chain. The chemicals can be absorbed through their skin. Kathryn Kuivila with the U.S. Geological Survey said, "Since pyrethroids ( Permethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid) are hydrophobic compounds that tend to move out of the water phase, earlier work focused on their detections in streambed sediments. Under these circumstances, these findings showed that pyrethroids may be transported dissolved in the water (dissolved phase), making them more bioavailable to aquatic organisms." The EPA has a database of 40 incidents reported to them involving Permethrin. Here are two of these incidents that illustrate its high toxicity to fish: -A state mosquito control truck sprayed Permethrin within 10 feet of a commercial fish pond killing 3000 rockfish. Maryland, 6/16/1997. -A fishkill occurred after a home was treated with Permethrin. The pesticide equipment was rinsed in a manner that resulted in runoff to a nearby pond. Rain occurring after treatment also contributed to runoff. Thousands of catfish and sunfish were killed. Missouri, 6/10/1995. Furthermore, what can be the wisdom of adding mosquito control chemicals and herbicides to our waterways when we already have a heavy toxic load of many kinds of chemicals in our waterways? For instance, the U.S. Geological Survey detected 24 pesticides, in the water in Village and Valley Creeks (17 herbicides and seven insecticides) in Jefferson County. Fish and other biota must swim in these chemicals, plus many more, for 24 hours per day. In the above study, the U.S. Geological Survey researchers said concentrations of Atrazine, Carbaryl, Clorpyrifos, Diazinon and Malathion periodically exceeded criteria for the protection of aquatic life. Also significant, EPA, state and university scientist's analyzed data from 2,000 sites trying to determine the extent to which rivers and streams are able to support aquatic life. They found that more than half -- 55 percent -- are in poor condition for aquatic life. Our fish can not take much more -- especially our endangered biota. If these toxic chemicals don't kill our aquatic biota, they may reduce their immunity or may give them tumors. One of the most serious problems facing mankind is genetic degradation. About 60 percent of brown bullhead fish in the Anacostia River have liver tumors. It's a warning to what could happen in your city. Furthermore, our contaminated river water makes its way to the oceans, which are collapsing. An article in a U.K. newspaper, The Independent, said, "The world's oceans are faced with an unprecedented loss of species comparable to the great mass extinctions of prehistory, a major report suggests today. "The seas are degenerating far faster than anyone has predicted, the report says, because of the cumulative impact of a number of severe individual stresses, ranging from climate warming and sea -water acidification, to widespread chemical pollution and gross overfishing. "The coming together of these factors is now threatening the marine environment with a catastrophe 'unprecedented in human history', according to the report, from a panel of leading marine scientists brought together in Oxford earlier this year by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)." Yet another concern, adding mosquito control pesticides and herbicides to our soil lowers the soil's PH and causes mercury and aluminum in the soil to change into forms that leach out and wash into our water bodies with the rain. What is more, these new chemical forms of mercury and aluminum can be taken up by aquatic biota. When humans eat fish contaminated with mercury, it can cause a diversity of health problems such as nervous system damage, which can cause anxiety, irritability, tremors, memory loss and more. Aluminum clogs the gills of fish and kills them. Furthermore, spraying for mosquitoes can defeat our purpose. A scientist concerned about mosquito spraying in rice fields in Asia explained that the water contains a rich array of invertebrates that consume "90 percent of mosquito larvae." He said if these invertebrates are destroyed, "the mosquitoes could increase." We need for our city governments to issue a moratorium against mosquito spraying to protect pollinators and aquatic ecosystems. PHYSICIANS AND SCIENTISTS SAY DON'T WORRY ABOUT WEST NILE VIRUS A group of physicians and scientists that posted an open letter on the internet opposing mosquito spraying said we should stop being concerned about West Nile Virus: "The spraying program poses much more danger to human health than the extremely small health risk presented by the West Nile Virus itself. Even people bitten by an INFECTED female mosquito, the carrier of this virus, run very little risk of serious illness. "As reported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, the chances of a mosquito bite resulting in West Nile Virus infection and serious illness is extremely low. "The Question and Answer Bulletin of the New York City Department of Health advises that, "Very few mosquitoes -- perhaps only one out of 1,000 — are infected. Even if you are bitten by an INFECTED female mosquito, your chances of developing illness are very small." "Dr. Gochfeld, Prof. of Environmental and Community Medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and School of Public Health reports that, based upon his experience and other West Nile Virus epidemics, typically less than one tenth of one percent of people bitten by infected mosquitoes develop any clinical signs of disease; in other words less than one in 1000 persons bitten by INFECTED mosquitoes (see Appendix "A ") will develop some health problem. "Even those who developed West Nile Virus related illness, usually only have mild forms with headaches, muscles aches, skin rashes and swollen lymphatic glands. More serious infections may cause headaches with high fever. "It is extremely rare for a person to develop encephalitis. Available information indicates that those who developed West Nile Virus encephalitis in the year 1999 (62 people, 7 died) and in the year 2000 (21 people, 2 died) were elderly and immunosuppressed. These people were residents of New York City and the surrounding areas. One person was a Canadian visiting New York. "Even in cases where death was attributed to West Nile Virus infection, the cause of death may not have been West Nile Virus. West Nile Virus positivity could be a coincidental finding because the cause of death may have been some disease process unrelated to the West Nile Virus. Thousands of individuals who had no symptoms tested positive for West Nile Virus antibodies, proving that they were exposed to the virus. They never became ill and were not even aware that they were infected with West Nile Virus until they were tested. "Compared to the thousands of people who die each year of the flu (approximately 2,500 in the New York City metropolitan area alone), or the number of children who die of asthma, 9 people in the last two years combined, who tested positive for West Nile Virus and whom subsequently died of encephalitis (mainly elderly and with impaired immunity) in a population with 10 million people — is an extremely small number. The Virus Is Not Transmitted Person To Person "The West Nile Virus is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, not from person to person. Female mosquitoes acquire the virus when biting an infected bird. The virus must be repeatedly transferred back and forth between infected mosquitoes and animal reservoirs (usually birds) before it poses a risk to humans." See more of this letter, including references to where the scientists and physicians got their information from by clicking on the link below. Open Letter by Concerned Physicians and Scientists: htt wwNv.be and esticides,or tnos uito docutnents O en °, /�2OLetter. )df Let's not get distracted from the issue of protecting our pollinators from mosquito spraying. CREATING HABITAT FOR POLLINATORS ON THE SIDES OF HIGHWAYS One important cause for pollinator decline is loss of habitat. Our butterflies and bees need more flowers. This could be eased by creating habitat on both sides of the 4 million miles of highways in the USA (11,000 miles in Alabama). This land is often not good habitat now because it is mowed too often and sometimes sprayed with toxic herbicides, which reduce the milkweed, alfalfa, clover and other nectar bearing wildflowers that butterflies need. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs solely on milkweed and their larvae feed solely on milkweed. The caterpillars of 27 species of butterflies and moths feed on clover. Alfalfa and clover are highly nutritious for bees. Having milkweed alongside of the highways is expecially important since it has also been eliminated on many farms on monarch migratory routes due to the fact that many farmers now spray their GMO herbicide resistant corn with Roundup herbicide. Native wildflowers have extensive root systems, which means they don't have to be watered and can hold up even in a drought. The extensive root systems also mean they hold down weeds and help prevent erosion. Diversity is important to ensure there is always something in bloom. It's also important so that we have something for each pollinator. They are often picky, going to only certain flowers. One of the officials with the Alabama State Department of Transportation that helps maintain the sides of highways told me they can not obtain enough seeds to plant 11,000 miles of highways. However, the state of Iowa faced this problem and solved it. They had farmers growing plants to collect the seeds. They also hired people to collect seeds from native vegetation growing alongside of roads. 10 Planting native wildflowers will mean the city will not have to undergo the expense of spraying herbicides and mowing. We can also create small bogs alongside of the highways that hold water to provide a source of water for pollinators and bird and other species. Here is a video on youtube that I created that shows how lovely it can be to grow wildflowers on the sides of our highways: littp:ZZw,,v-,v.youtLibe.com/w-,itch?K- „h6NUG06II8 PESTICIDES VOLATILZE, THREATING POLLINATORS AND AQUATIC BIOTA Many pesticides herbicides, insecticides and fungicides volatilize and drift in the air currents, coating the nectar and pollen in distant places, endangering pollinators. These pesticides also enter water bodies as they wash out in the rain or wash off the land into culverts on the sides of roads into streams. Aquatic biota in distant places are endangered. To illustrate this, fish in the Great Lakes were once being killed by an acutely toxic pesticide called Toxaphene, but farmers in the area were not using this substance. Scientists tested the wind currents for the pesticide by drawing air through polyurethane foam. "Places where we found high concentrations in the air correlated with prevailing winds from the South,” said Dr. Clifford Rice, an environmental chemist with the Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. They set up testing stations in those places and were able to track the movement of the chemical all the way across the country to cotton fields in the South where it was being sprayed. While Toxaphene is now banned in the United States, it is still in use in some countries and thus, still moving on global air currents — contaminating the earth. Biologists have found over 150 different chemical residues in bee pollen. It's a deadly "pesticide cocktail," said University of California apiculturist Eric Mussen. 11 FORCED TO CONSIDER ORGANIC AGRICULTURE Huge agricultural monocultures can not function without rented honeybees, for wild pollinators don't make their way into the center of these fields. Most of our food comes from monocultures, but the honeybee is failing. One third of bees died this year. It happened around the world. Many countries depend on Australia to supply bee keepers with honeybees. Will Australia be hit with varroa mites and colony collapse disorder? Already the mites are in nearby New Zealand. To have food security, we are forced to consider small scale organic agriculture that can rely on wild, rather than domesticated, pollinators. (Organic farms have far more pollinators than pesticide intensive farms, which is significant with pollinators in extreme decline.) We need to give some of the $16 billion we give in agricultural subsidies to organic farmers. Europe is leading the way. The European Union is leading the way. Instead of subsidies for specific crops, farmers in the European Union can now get money for public goods and services not rewarded by the free market. Here is a partial list of some ways a farmer can earn subsidies: • Converting to organic agriculture • Reducing pesticide usage • Reducing the number of cattle per hectare • Planting trees • Building hedgerows • Planting flowers rich in pollen and nectar to provide food for butterflies, bees and other pollinators • Transforming pasture and arable land into meadows • Planting seed mixtures for wild birds • Digging wetlands or small ponds to provide habitat for wildlife • Leaving corn stubble on the fields during the winter to provide habitat to small animals and ground nesting birds • Leaving drainage ditches and hedgerows untrimmed so birds can nest there • Planting grass in the corners of fields to slow the flow of polluted water 12 • Putting up a fence that prohibits cows from defficating in a stream • Leaving a portion of cereal crops unharvested to provide food for birds • Setting aside farmland • Geting training in new farming techniques and rural crafts • Assisting young farmers in setting up their farms (These rural development subsidies are available to anyone -- not just farmers.) • Helping farmers establish food processing facilities on their farms so that they can earn more money by adding value to their crops • Assisting farmers in meeting E.U. Standards, for example, environmental, animal welfare and public health • Renovating villages and rural facilities • Protecting and conserving rural heritage • And more. I say we also need to give subsidies to plant cover crops such as alfalfa and clover. These not only fix the soil with nitrogen and help prevent erosion, they are highly nutritious foods for pollinators. (Alfalfa also harbours predatory and parasitic insects that would protect crops from insects.) About 27 species of butterflies and moths lay their eggs on clover. (We should give NO SUBSIDIES for huge pesticide intensive monocultures.) It is vital that farmers be given subsidies and technical assistance to plant patches of woods that divide large fields into smaller ones, SO POLLINATORS REACH THE CENTER OF THE FIELD. The forest patches would provide habitat for pollinators and bird. The mother birds have a nest in the woods. She goes into the field to get a bug, then back to her nest in the woods. WHEN CUBA WAS FORCED TO CONVERT TO ORGANIC AGRICULTURE When changing to organic methods of farming, Fidel Castro read 200 books on agriculture trying to help the country devise an excellent plan. 13 It takes about three to five years to build up soil fertility and to re- establish the natural enemies of pests to control insects and disease. But in Cuba's case, the transition had to be immediate, so they have been depending on biopesticides, such as bacteria, fungi and viruses that attack pests but are nontoxic to humans. Other biopesticides used include insects that eat or parasitize other insects. One biopesticide is made from a fungus that controls diseases that grow in the soil and attack tobacco, tomatoes, peppers and other crops. They also use certain flies that eat other insects; tiny wasps that eat the eggs of the assava hornworm, the tobacco budworm, caterpillars and other pests; and predatory ants that attack the sweet potato weevil. One former administrator of a forestry research institute says he has no need for biopesticides in his garden because of its incredible biodiversity. "We are reaching biological equilibrium. The pest populations are now kept under control by the constant presence of predators in the ecosystem," he said. Agricultural extension workers have had an important role in the conversion to organic agriculture. They travel by bicycle, foot or bus making regular visits to all of the gardeners in their areas, teaching them how to be effective in organic farming. For instance, the worker may show a gardener how to use guava and avocado trees planted in wide rows to provide shade for vegetable crops that cannot thrive in the hot tropical sun. They diagnose pest and disease problems, help gardeners get and use biological control products, inform the people about workshops, help them get the supplies they need, inform them about research centers, information services and other resources in their city and help them form garden clubs. Joining a garden club gives a gardener access to workshops to help them learn gardening skills, foreign donations, material resources, assistance with their work on heavy workdays, access to markets, networking opportunities and friendships. People can also learn gardening skills from the national television and newspaper articles. 14 The seed houses have also contributed to Cuba's success in organic agriculture. There are 12 of these in the city of Havana alone. They sell low -cost biopesticides, biofertilizers and low -cost gardening supplies, such as worm humus, seeds, fruit -tree saplings etc. There are various agricultural research services that are the backbone of Cuba's success at organic farming. One research institute conducts educational programs and workshops. Another one, the Soil and Fertilizer Research Institute, does research on non - chemical ways of enriching soil with such substances as quarried minerals, worms, green manure, animal manure and solubilizing bacteria that make the soil rich in phosphorous the crops need. The Swedish Parliament honored a Cuban group with the 1999 Right Livelihood Award, also called the Alternative Nobel Prize, for its agricultural expertise and commitment to organic farming. DWINDLING PETROLEUM SUPPLIES AND ITS AFFECT ON AGRICULTURE Cuba was forced to convert to organic agriculture when the country lost imports of petroleum, for pesticides and fertilizers are made from fossil fuels. We too will be forced to transition to organic agriculture, for the same reason. For warning signs are abundant that oil supplies are drawing down. The cheap and easy stuff to extract is gone. Now, the oil industry is going for expensive, dirty, difficult to reach supplies using highly risky techniques, such as deep water drilling, tar sands and fracking. But transitioning to organic agriculture takes time. If we are to avoid calamity, we need to begin now. It will take leadership. PESTICIDES AND ARTHRITIS If you have arthritis, you need to take strong action to reduce your consumption of free radicals, for these ultimately lead to arthritis, according to Dr. Hari Sharma, a professor of pathology and director of the Cancer Prevention and Natural Products Research at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. 15 A free radical is an atom that has an unpaired electron. A normal atom has a proton with a positive charge and an electron spinning around it that has a negative charge. The proton and electron are drawn to one another like a family unit. Again, a free radical is unpaired and unstable. It has a charge to it and will pull apart these family units trying to get what it needs. Pesticides and Free Radicals How do we get free radicals? One source is pollutants, such as pesticides, in our tap water or food. "Pesticides kill the pests by creating free radicals," said Dr. Sharma. The U.S. Geological Survey detected 24 pesticides, in the water in Village and Valley Creeks (17 herbicides and seven insecticides) in Jefferson County, Alabama. In this study, the U.S. Geological Survey researchers said concentrations of Atrazine, Carbaryl, Clorpyrifos, Diazinon and Malathion periodically exceeded criteria for the protection of aquatic life. These pesticides could make their way into tap water, for the Environmental Protection Agency said on the EPA website that the sewage treatment system is not designed to remove chemicals. Not only can the free radicals in pesticides cause arthritis, they can also cause the cholesterol in your blood to become sticky so that it clings to blood vessel walls, plugging them. Free radicals in your skin causes aging. Free radicals in your DNA can cause cancer, lymphoma or leukemia. There are machines that dispense clean water for purchase at Whole Foods Market, Publix and Walmart. The machines, which are about the size of a coke machine, put water through both reverse osmosis, one of the best filters out there, and charcoal filtration. You bring your own containers and fill them up for about 39 cents a gallon. (Make sure to get your water in glass jars since plastic leaches hormone disruptors into the water, such as Bisophenol A and Phthylates. These are linked to breast cancer and diabetes even in small concentrations. I get glass jars by purchasing gallon jars of pickles at Publix.) Not only can people get exposed to pesticides from their tap water. They can be exposed from eating food that is not organic. There are certain foods that should always be organic because they are so dirty. For instance, 16 the USDA has found that apples have residues of 40 different pesticides, celery, has residues of more than 60 different pesticides, cucumbers, have more than 35 different pesticides, grapes, have residues of more than 30 pesticides, nectarines have more than 33 pesticides, peaches, have more than 60 pesticides, potatoes, have residues of more than 35 pesticides, strawberries have about 60 different pesticides, spinach has about 50 different pesticides, sweet bell peppers have 50 different pesticides, collard greens have 45 different pesticides, lettuce has more than 50 kinds of pesticides, and blue berries have residues of more than 50 kinds of pesticides. Cherry tomatoes and kale also have many kinds of pesticide residues. Some other sources of free radicals are alcohol, preservatives in food, cigarette smoke, some drugs, mental distress and polyunsaturated oils. It is good to eat monounsaturated oils, such as olive oil. These are much more stable during the cooking process -- much less likely to form free radicals. Counteracting Free Radicals The pigments (the color) in fruit and vegetables contain hundreds of compounds called antioxidants that prevent damage to our cells by free radicals. Another good source of antioxidants is cold pressed sesame seed oil. When heated, sesame seed oil becomes an even more powerful antioxidant, according to Dr. Sharma. You might use it on your salads or in place of mayonaise on sandwiches and on a baked potato. You can share this essay with your friends and family members suffering from arthritis. WHY SOIL SHOULD BE TEEMING WITH LIFE When farmers began to use pesticides and fertilizers and stopped putting compost on the land, feeding the life in the soil, the results were disastrous for our soil and our continuing ability to feed ourselves. One dilemma is that pesticides are designed to kill life. When using them the "beneficial soil life, which is normally present in healthy soil, is lost," said Dr. Elaine Ingham, who holds a PhD in microbiology with an emphasis on soil, and is a leader in research on life in the soil. She says synthetic fertilizers are also toxic to soil biota. 17 But soil is meant to be teeming with life, forming one of the most biologically rich ecosystems on earth. Healthy soil contains springtails, earthworms, sow bugs, millipedes, earwigs, and fungi. It contains microorganisms, centipedes, alga, snails, microflora, rotifera, spiders, slugs and protozoa. It contains soil mites, ants and so much more. We kill these biota at our peril. Among the most beneficial creatures on earth are earthworms. They loosen, plow and soften the earth burrowing tunnels. Air and rainwater flow through these tunnels which both help the roots and root hairs to grow. One study showed that tree orchards with abundant earthworms have 40 percent longer root systems which means trees are able to pull in far more water and nutrients. What is very important to understand, earthworms and bacteria secrete a glue -like substance that clumps soil crumbs together and helps them hold the shape of their air pocket and tunnel structures, which improves the water holding capacity of soil. Bacteria glue together small aggregates (clumps of soil) while fungi use filaments they grow to bind soil particles into larger aggregates, says Dr. Ingham. There can be a billion microbes in just one teaspoon of soil secreting this sticky glue -like substance. If not for this glue -like substance, the soil particles would get finer and finer and wash away. The structures would flatten out and the water would either pool up or run off rather than penetrating, carrying topsoil with it. There is sometimes a "tremendous difference" in the look, feel and smell of soil from a chemical- intensive field as compared to living soil from an organic field, says Brian Halweil, a food and agriculture researcher with the Worldwatch Institute. Soil from an organic field often "smells like a forest floor or like mushrooms," is usually moister and hold's together," he says, whereas "soil treated with chemical sprays often smells burned, is dry, brittle and crumbly, doesn't hold together well and is easily washed away by wind and water." In Iowa, farmers are losing two bushel baskets of soil for every bushel of corn they harvest, according to Rodale Institute. 18 Dr. Ingham says the longer roots of plants and trees when there is life in the soil and structure helps prevent erosion. Furthermore, healthy soil that has not been sterilized with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers often contains much alga, which form threaded mats that anchor the soil, helping prevent erosion. Similarly, the hyphae threads of mycorrhizal fungi also help anchor the soil helping prevent erosion. But again, both pesticides and fertilizers quickly kill these fungi. To illustrate how life in the soil helps prevent erosion, scientists have devised what they call the slake test. Water is poured over dead lifeless soil and the water grews cloudy because the soil particles are loose and wash away. But when water is poured over soil teeming with life, the water remains clear because the soil particles are glued together and anchored by alga and mycorrhizal fungi. (See the attached photo of the slake test.) And with no glue -like substance secreted by bacteria, fungi and earthworms to hold the structure, the soil would grow increasingly hard and deadpan, which roots can't penetrate, and would have little or no oxygen in it for root growth or soil organisms. Before long, the soil would become useless for agriculture with yields dropping and dropping. When earthworms are burrowing tunnels, loosening the soil, there is a significant improvement in the water holding capacity of soil. One study showed that a plot of land with no earthworms absorbed only .2 inches of water per minute. But when earthworms were added the land absorbed far more rainfall -- .9 inches per minute. Mycorrhizal fungi, which are easily killed by pesticides and fertilizers, also help plants pull in far more water and nutrients by embedding the roots of plants and stretching out in all directions. This helps plants hold up in a drought. In fact, scientists believe these amazing organisms may be the key to helping us remediate the desert. One researcher found that yields doubled when there were both mycorrhiza fungi and rhizobia bacteria. All of these things, the improved water holding capacity, the longer roots when there are earthworms, the mycorrhizal fungi can help us use less irrigation water — a very serious concern. And since earthworms are more abundant when we add compost to the land, we can say that adding compost rather than chemicals out of a bag helps us use less irrigation water. 19 Dr. Ingham says all of these factors can reduce water use by 70 percent. "I couldn't even get drought assistance during the last drought," says Nick Maravell, an organic farmer living in Potomac, Maryland, who didn't suffer the losses some farmers experienced. The mycorrhizal fungi and the longer roots all make food more nutritious. A study by Swedish scientists found that plants with mycorrhizal fungi had 3 to 10 times more nutrition in their leaves, fruit and grain than plants with no mycorrhizal fungi. Many studies reveal the nutritional superiority of organic agriculture. After a review of 400 studies, Shane Heaton, who is with the British Soil Association, said, "Collectively, the scientific evidence supports the view that organically grown foods are significantly different in terms of food safety, nutrient content and nutritional value." Also, a 12 year study by a German professor, Dr. Werener Schuphan, found that organic produce was far higher in vitamins than non - organic produce. For instance, he found that organic spinich contained 64 -78 percent more vitamin C than non - organic spinach while organic cabbage contained 76 -91 percent more vitamin C than non organic cabbage. Furthermore, almost universally, organic produce has a far higher mineral and trace mineral content than non - organic produce, according to Dr. Schuphan,who was for years Director of Germany's Federal Institute for Research of Quality in Plant Production. A higher mineral content of food gives it a sweeter flavor. That is because minerals are essential for cell processes that impart color, fragrance, taste and texture to fruits and vegetables. Dr. Alyson Mitchell at the University of California did a study revealing that organically grown food is significantly higher in antioxidants. Her study was done on sweet corn, strawberries and a type of black berries. Antioxidants are substances that counteract the impact of free radicals. An international team of experts led by Newcastle University in England reviewed 343 studies comparing organic and conventionally grown food and concluded that organic crops are up to 60 percent higher in a number of key antioxidants. The study also revealed that organic crops contain 50 percent lower levels of toxic heavy metals, such as cadmium, lead and mercury. 20 Furthermore, Dr. Ingham says research by the United States Department of Agriculture comparing today's conventionally grown food with food grown in the 1920s and 1930s, before pesticides and organic fertilizers were being used, reveals a ten -fold decrease in micronutrients and proteins. MAINTAINING THE FERTILITY OF OUR SOILS BY OBEYING THE LAW OF RETURN A family in Portland, Oregon, has added one foot of rich black compost to its lawn that was made in its compost pile over a 15 -year period of time. Dr. Ole Ersson and his wife, Maitri, recently sold that home and moved into a small cottage that is also in Portland, which means they'll be starting over, building new soil. "We kind of regret leaving that place," said Dr. Ersson. "The fertility is astounding. It is such healthy soil. It's rich black earth full of humus. Very fertile. Very friable. You can almost just dig your hand into it, it is so soft." They not only compost their vegetable and fruit peelings and leaves, they also compost their humanure, which they collect in what they call a "sawdust toilet." It is a five gallon bucket with a removable toilet seat that fits down over it. "As you know, nature doesn't have waste. Nature recycles everything. Somebody poops in the forest and it decays and creates fertility and new soil. We have perverted that and invented waste; not just waste, but waste on just a humongous scale." Every week or so, they add several buckets of humanure to their compost pile, well covered with sawdust. "In about six months, it smells like fresh earth," said Dr. Ersson, who is involved in the permaculture movement. Composting Humanure in Ancient Times Composting humanure for use in agriculture began in China during the 12th Century or before. The idea 21 spread to Japan, probably when Zen Buddhists traveled to China to study. Japanese farmers were greatly impressed with the gains in productivity when they used humanure as a fertilizer. They began paying people for their excreta, keeping the urban areas clean and disease free. The Chinese composted humanure along with animal waste, grass clippings, soil brought into the village and huge amounts of mud from the irrigation canals, which was rich in organic matter from the snails and other aquatic biota that lived in the water. Using this organic matter, they were able to maintain the fertility of the soil for 4,000 years in spite of the intense usage of the land due to severe population pressures. In contrast, the United States has "exhausted strong virgin fields" in three generations, wrote F.H. King, who was a professor of agricultural physics and chief of the division of soil management with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and who visited these countries in the mid 1920s and wrote a classic book called Farmers of Forty Centuries: Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan. If future generations are to have food security, it is vital that the public works departments in each of our 39,000 cities initiate composting programs to create free compost for our farmland. Some of our $16 billion farm subsidy money could be used to initiate these programs. See the city of Seattle's compost program: htip://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaiRKS6n3sQ (The city of Seattle has a public private partnership with Cedar Grove Composting. They do not give the compost to farmers, as I am suggesting. They sell it to the public. Furthermore, I say composting must be done not on the large metropolitan area scale, but on a small scale in each of our 39,000 local communities — to control odor.) These government agencies can gather peelings and scraps from households, daycare centers, nursing homes, jails, schools and universities, restaurants etc. They can also gather moldy bread and other ruined foods from grocery stores. They can also gather Christmas trees, leaves, fallen limbs, garden clippings, pumpkins etc. to be composted. We could nudge farms to be more sustainable by giving free compost to farms that agree to farm organically. 22 The state of Maryland is putting 95 percent of the sewage sludge, now called biosolids, on farmland. However, this is not advisable. While it is true that humanure is rich in nitrogen and phosphorous and high in organic matter, which increases soil tilth, soil porosity and water holding capacity, sewage contains so much more than just humanure. One sewage treatment plant might receive wastes from 100 -200 companies, which means thousands of chemicals will be present in a single sludge: brominated flame retardants, PCBs, pesticides, including DDT, dioxin, radioactive material, asbestos, mercury, lead, cadmium, zinc. It's an endless list. Dr. Murray McBride, a professor of soil chemistry at Cornell University who has studied sewage sludge for 20 years, said thousands of chemicals that can be in sludge have not been researched to ensure that plants do not take them up or to ensure that they degrade in the soil quickly enough. He also expressed concern about grazing cattle ingesting dust and soil that is laced with such chemicals as dioxins, which he said can persist in the soil for decades, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, (flame retardants), which behave a lot like PCBs, as well as surfactants from certain dishwashing detergents and laundry detergents that are broken down into nonylphenol, an endocrine disrupting chemical. "The list is very long.... The chemicals concentrate in body fat, which means it can be in the meat and milk," he said. "In fact, the concentration in the milk fat would be perhaps even higher than in the soil, so there's a concentrating effect." Also significant, he said when sewage sludge is added to soil "there's a tendency for the soil ph to drop, which means every heavy metal we worry about, including cadmium, zinc and copper, becomes more soluble and much more plant available." But he added, generally speaking, that metals are not showing up in cow's milk. In a testimony before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, a chemist who studied the effects of lead on soil and groundwater for 25 years said, "One application of sludge adds more lead to the soil than did 50 years of using leaded gasoline." The chemist, Dr. Stanford Tackett, who is a professor emeritus at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said in a published article, "In heavily traveled areas, the use of leaded gasoline was adding lead contamination to the soil at a rate of about 1 pound per acre per year. That pollution was severe enough to cause the banning of lead 23 from gasoline. In spite of that, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources regulations allow 100 pounds of lead per acre from sludge for stripmine reclamation, and 60 pounds of lead per acre for agricultural use." According to him, "lead doesn't deteriorate. It just stays there in the soil." He says, "Lead is taken up by the plants at low levels and is in the leaves of the plant, or in the fruit or whatever. When that food is processed, those low levels of lead are there.... The body has no mechanism for eliminating the metals so they are accumulated in blood, bones and body organs. Because of this cumulative nature, heavy metals pose a hazard at any concentration level.... It will affect children over time. If they just eat one carrot, lets say, that has taken up some lead, it probably won't do any harm. But if that is part of their regular diet, day in and day out, week in and week out, then the heavy metals pose a hazard." Tackett explained, "Young children may eat only one quarter as much as an adult, but they absorb four times as much of the ingested lead as an adult." Revealing the seriousness of this issue, he said, "Absorption of even trace concentrations of lead during the years of most rapid brain growth, from birth to 5 years, can cause permanent mental retardation.... A significant majority of U.S. children already have a blood lead burden greater than 10 ug /100g of blood (0.10 ppm). Thus, an increase in lead level of even the slightest amount in these children will probably lead to an increased severity of health problems." In addition, he said, "Lead also interferes with the blood - forming process, vitamin D metabolism, kidney function, and the neurological process. It has been associated with hypertension in adults." Dr. McBride said he is even more concerned about lead from sludge in dust that gets on leafy vegetables such as lettuce or spinach. "You can wash the leaves but a lot of that dust won't come off, so you come up with higher levels of lead," he said. "We are at a point where we do not want to in any way increase the burden of lead in human diets." Studies show that sewage sludge can also contain many pathogens linked to such ailments or diseases as polio, cholera, tuberculosis, staph, tetanus, hepatitis, HIV, rocky mountain spotted fever, encephalitis, hemorrhagic 24 fevers, typhoid fever, bloody diarrhea, infant diarrhea, anthrax, skin infection, pneumonia, abdominal inflammation, weight loss, weakness, chills, fever, anorexia, weil's disease, urogenital tract infection, skin infection, neurological disorders, gastroenteritis, vomiting, restlessness, intestinal inflammation, digestive disturbances, nervousness, anemia, respiratory effects, hook worms and more. An 11- year -old boy from Pennsylvania, Tony Behun, grew suddenly ill with skin lesions, fever and respiratory problems after riding his bike through a mine reclamation field where sludge was being dumped. He died four days later. In Augusta, Georgia, 300 cows died on a dairy farm receiving sewage sludge. The Boyceland Farm was the only farm where cows were dying and the only farm in the area receiving sewage sludge. The farmer, Bill Boyce, sued the city of Augusta and the court awarded him $550,000 in damages. When the National Organic Program considered allowing sewage sludge to be spread on organic farmland, the agency received close to 275,000 letters in protest. As a result, biosolids are not allowed on farms that are certified organic. What should be done with sewage sludge? Dr. Tackett recommends incineration with scrubbers that take out the contaminants, but he says this is very expensive. In my thinking, it would be far better for the sludge to be removed in homes. One can have a five gallon bucket with a lid and put a layer of soil from the garden shop, a layer of humanure (dry solids) a layer of soil, a layer of humanure etc. This can be set out on the curb one day a week for the city to pick up and compost. After one year, it could be delivered free of charge to farmers. See my website for more information: Annie Birdsong http: / /www.anniebirdsong.info Let's not get distracted from the issue of mosquito spraying killing pollinators. 25 : -t M I I Ap n s Y 3 H f _e LA It la� 4PSO AW vl- [A