Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!bellcore!faline!hammond
From: hammond@faline.bellcore.com (Rich A. Hammond)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,sci.bio,sci.misc
Subject: Re: pesticides
Message-ID: <1039@faline.bellcore.com>
Date: Wed, 12-Aug-87 09:39:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: faline.1039
Posted: Wed Aug 12 09:39:35 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Aug-87 05:25:14 EDT
References: <4960@ihlpa.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: hammond@faline.UUCP (Rich A. Hammond)
Organization: Bellcore MRE
Lines: 32
Xref: mnetor misc.consumers:2441 sci.bio:559 sci.misc:424

In article <> jru@etn-rad.UUCP (0000-John Unekis) writes:
>In article <4960@ihlpa.ATT.COM> harolds1@ihlpa.ATT.COM (Schessler) writes:
>>Silent Spring Still Flows ....
>>    (many words) ...
>>	    In the 25 years  since  "Silent  Spring"  first  warned
>>       about  chlordane,  and  a warehouseful of other poisons,	not
>>       much  has  changed  politically.	  The  industry	 is   still
>>       winning,	 the  public  still  losing, and the government	not
>>       caring much either way.
>>
>       Unfortunately the alternative to the use of pesticides is
>       world famine. One thing that would help the cause of 
>       environmentalists gain credibility and even respect in the
>       public view would be a constructive alternative that would still
>       allow us to feed our growing population. Schemes which involve

There was a show on our Educational Channel this spring produced by
the Smithsonian about farming.  One of the farm's they singled out
to talk about was a farmer who DIDN'T use pesticides or fertilizer.
Turns out that he came back from WW 2 and bought/leased a farm next
to his father's farm.  He was going to show the old man how to farm
using all the modern stuff (fertilizers, pesticides).  Well, he didn't
get any better yield than his father and was out the cost of the chemicals.
So now (after his father retired) he's back on the family farm without
chemicals, still producing as much per acre as his neighbors, but making
more money.

This is an anecdote that suggests (at least in the US) that
dropping some use of pesticides/weed killers might not be as bad as
one would think.

Rich Hammond, Bell Communications Research, bellcore!hammond hammond@bellcore.com