Are You Listening?-----

the World Health Organisation has estimated that between 3.5 and 5m people globally suffer acute pesticide poisoning every year

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Subject:          Are You Listening?-----
 Date:              Wed, 05 Jan 2000 16:22:48 -0500
From:             Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
          State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
          Integrated Pest Management

Lyndon, I thought you might like to read yet another article on why people should not be exposed to your "registered" POISONS but, should break your "law" and use safe and far more effective alternative pest controls.  The article entitled: ORGANIC FOOD 'PROVEN' HEALTHIER, came out Jan. 3/99, on the BBC.   http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_588000/588589.stm

 UK Soil Association Director Patrick Holden was cited as telling BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth programme that new research from Denmark and Germany, which will be presented in the UK at the association's conference on organic food on 8 January, shows that organically-grown produce is healthier to eat than conventional crops because organic plants contain more secondary metabolites than conventionally-grown plants.

The story says that secondary metabolite are substances which form part of the plants' immune systems, and which also help to fight cancer in humans.  Mr Holden was cited as saying that organic crops also have a measurably higher level of vitamins, and that this can benefit people who eat them, adding that, "intensive farming is devitalising our food."

The story adds that the researchers' findings will strengthen the organic lobby, which has been accused of making exaggerated and even unwarranted claims. However the programme spoke to scientists who said they knew of no evidence of any nutritional benefit from eating organic food.  Others claimed it could be positively dangerous, especially when it was fertilised with sewage containing potentially harmful organisms.

 Some maintained that many of the natural pesticides produced by plants were potentially more of a risk than the synthetic ones used in conventional agriculture. And with organic food costing appreciably more than ordinary products, one US cancer specialist said organic farming was a "dangerous delusion".

Poor people would find it hard to afford the fruit and vegetables they  needed to reduce their cancer risk, he argued.  But the World Health Organisation has estimated that between 3.5 and 5m people globally suffer acute pesticide poisoning every year.   So the programme concludes that, whatever the individual benefits of organic food may be, it is almost certainly beneficial on a wider scale.  AGNET JANUARY 4, 2000.

Well Lyndon, I have consistently proven my organic controls work better than your "registered" POISONS.  Therefore they produce safer, healthier, greater yields and far less expensive food.  I can safely control Phylloxera root louse, Black Goo fungus, Esca (Measles) and Eutypa in vineyards - can you?  If your "registered" POISONS do not even work - how can any sane person say they will produce more economical produce?  And the produce they do produce is obviously CONTAMINATED!  Keep on insisting only your "registered" POISONS can "legally" be used in California and you will bankrupt the farmers and POISON and/or STARVE the populace - but, be of good cheer, your actions or inactions will produce record profits for the poison "industry".

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten
 

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