Two Articles from the Agribusiness Examiner
DECEPTIVE CLAIMS AND IRRELEVANT ANECDOTES:
“TRADE SECRETS’:
(More people are finding out that the Emperor(s) has no clothes.)
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Subject: THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER #107
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 07:46:51 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State
of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker,
I thought you might like to read two articles from Albert Krebs:
DECEPTIVE CLAIMS AND IRRELEVANT ANECDOTES:
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY OSTENSIBLY TOUTS IPM WHILE ENCOURAGING
EXCESSIVE RELIANCE ON CHEMICAL POISONS IN NY SCHOOLS
At the request of the New York State Attorney General, the
State Education Department (NYSED) has sent a memo to all school executives (Jan
2001) regarding deceptive and misleading information mailed to schools last
September by Responsible Industry for a Safe Environment (RISE).
The memo reads in part, "The materials distributed by
RISE promote pesticide use with deceptive claims and irrelevant anecdotes about
the health and environmental impacts of pesticides. . . . While ostensibly
promoting integrated pest management (IPM) at schools, the material sent by RISE
actually encourage continued excessive reliance of pesticides by schools....
“It is understandable that RISE advocates this role,
given that its mission, as set forth at its web site, is to 1) provide a strong
unified voice for the specialty pesticide industry; 2) positively influence
public opinion and policy' and, 3) promote the use of industry products.
www.acpa.org/rise/intro and note that this is not the RISE web site to which
recipients of the RISE letter were directed."
Last spring NYSED opposed legislation to require all school
to practice least-toxic IPM and another bill to require schools to provide prior
notice of school pesticide use. The prior notice bill was enacted.
The RISE info packet was mailed in September 2000.
NYS schools are currently required to have Preventive Maintenance Plans
that include IPM, but neither the content of the Preventive Maintenance Plan nor
IPM have been defined, nor are schools required to actually implement these
undefined plans.
Prior notice regulations for schools go into effect July 1,
2001.
In this new legislative session, the NYS Assembly has
reintroduced a school least toxic IPM bill; the Senate has thus far declined to
do so for the first time this year (a matching IPM bill had been in the Senate
for three years running), claiming that 'Prior Notice' used up all its
enthusiasm for IPM and pesticide legislation last year.
“TRADE SECRETS’:
MOYERS\JONES DOCUMENTARY BASED ON A MASSIVE ARCHIVE OF
CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SHOCKING DOCUMENTS TO AIR ON PBS MARCH 26
A majority of citizens believe most chemicals are already
tested for safety, and that the government is protecting them against harmful
chemicals. But what is the true story?
A groundbreaking investigative report on the chemical
industry by Bill Moyers and award winning documentary film maker Sherry Jones
uncovers how the public’s health and safety have been put at risk and why
corporate powerful forces don't want the truth to be known.
TRADE SECRETS: A MOYERS REPORT is currently scheduled to
air on PBS on Monday, March 26 at 9 p.m. (check local listings)
This investigative report, accompanied by a PBS Web site,
is based on a massive archive of secret industry documents as shocking as the
"tobacco papers." In the 50 years of the chemical revolution, over
75,000 chemicals have been released into the environment. What happens as our
body absorbs them? And how can we protect ourselves?
TRADE SECRETS promises to provide everyone working on toxic chemicals and environmental health issues a tremendous education and outreach opportunity.
Moyers and Jones won the Peabody Award for their last
collaboration on WASHINGTON'S OTHER SCANDAL. To take advantage of this
opportunity the Environmental Health Fund, the Environmental Working Group, the
Center for Health, Environment and Justice and Women's Voices For the Earth are
launching Coming Clean.
Coming Clean is aimed at assisting groups across the
country to use the opportunity of a prime time television special to boost their
ongoing work. Coming Clean is also focused on doing whatever people can to
ensure that after March 26, there are more people in more communities from even
more diverse backgrounds working to stop the chemical contamination of the
world’s food, bodies and environment.
Viewers are being asked to consider hosting a Coming Clean
viewing event. For more information, contact Charlotte Brody at cbrody@chej.org
(703-237-2249), Bryony Schwan at swan@wildrockies.org (406-543-3747), Sharyle
Patton at spatton@igc.org Mark Ritchie, President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy 2105 First Ave.
South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404 USA
612-870-3400 (phone) 612-870-4846 (fax) mritchie@iatp.org
News of the program has already raised the ire of the
American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) as it reports in a recent issue of one
of its e-mail newsletters in a story headlined
"Chemical Industry may be the next TV victim" that it is
concerned about the production. It characterizes the Moyers\Jones report as
being "orchestrated by a group of national environmental groups" and
says that the program will be used "as the centerpiece for a national
anti-chemistry campaign called "Coming Clean” and that it “does not
appear that any member of the crop protection or chemical industries was
contacted to provide balance to the program.”
The AFBF alert makes no mention of the fact that several
multi-million dollar Farm Bureau insurance conglomerates are heavily invested in
various chemical/biotech companies such as Monsanto, DOW and DuPont.
APPEAL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS - While THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER
is a subscription free e-mail newsletter it welcomes contributions in the hope
that readers still value THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER to such an extent that they
will willingly and generously
financially support its continued
circulation as it enters its third year. Checks should be made out to A.V.
Krebs and sent to P.O. Box
2201, Everett, Washington 98203-0201
Well Mr. Helliker, Once
again I ask you: "When will it
be "legal" (in your opinion) to use safe and far more effective
(unregistered) alternatives to actually control pest problems? I
have safely controlled all pest problems inside and outside in over 350 schools
without ever using any volatile pesticide POISONS. How do you define the word "alternative"?
If you can not even define the word "alternative', how will you ever
find any alternatives to your dangerous "registered" POISONS?