If you have been checking for a new posting it has been a couple of weeks since we have been up to my sister-in-laws to help out with care for her mother. There was some spraying next door to her house which prevented my wife from going up there. She had to have help to get in the house today and we are not sure how long she will be able to make it in here, so if this newsletter seems to come to an abrupt stop you will know why. I had to get her out of the area in a hurry.
Dave, a business friend of ours, used to make the comment that there was none as blind as those who would not see. I thought of that a lot this last week after an encounter my wife had this week. She suffers from Environmental Illness and is especially sensitive to the fungicide that many farmers in our area have used for the last three years. This is all applied aerially so one day we had four airplanes flying on three sides of our farm. Three years ago when this all started she was caught outside three times when the spray planes flew low over our house. This causes an illness reaction in her because of her severe sensitivity to those chemicals. We called the airport and requested that the planes avoid flying over our house. We also tried to keep a sharp ear and eye open so if we saw or heard them we tried to get Rosie out of harm’s way. For the most part it seemed to us as if the planes did try to honor our request. Last week though we had an encounter with one. I was up in one of our upper fields when I heard what at first I thought was a fighter plane from Whiteman airbase. As I looked for the plane suddenly a yellow spray plane flew over not two hundred feet west of me and tree top high. He was headed directly over where Rose had been that morning. I immediately headed there to check on her but saw that she was in the house at the time. As I was walking to the house to check on her I could smell the odor of chemical in the air and my face started to burn a little bit so I went in the house and washed my face. After this Rose could not get outside the rest of that day and part of the next. This frustrated Rose so she called the airport and asked if they would please ask the pilot of that plane to avoid our house. The man she talked to at the airport told her that the plane simply flying over her house could not affect her.
That statement brought my friend’s statement to my mind. One of the advantages of aerial spraying is the way an airplane affects the wind currents. It creates a rolling affect so that the material being applied not only lands on top of the crop but also gets up under the leaves of the crop where the stomas are located. This gives excellent coverage and allows the plane to use less water thus making a more concentrated solution. Now I ask you to think about something else for just a minute. If you are addicted to the weather as I and most farmers are, you know that many local weathermen give a allergy report during the summer. It starts in the spring with the grass pollen, then trees, then weeds and in a wet year like this one the mold count is usually high. Think about this for a minute. The grass is never more than a few inches off the ground when they start counting and where does mold grow? It is usually right on the ground or very close to it. Then how do mold spores and grass pollen get high enough for people to ever be affected by them. Are these people just imagining they are affected by them? How is it that the meteorologists can go out and sample the air and give a count of how much is out there? Now if all this is true and I have never heard anyone bring it into question, why is so hard to believe that a plane flying overhead could affect air quality. As that plane is dispensing his load on the field he is flying up and down and making sharp turns. Don’t you suppose that as he is doing this that some of his chemical gets mixed up in the air and then as he makes his next approach the plane travels through the chemical. Isn’t it reasonable to assume that some of that chemical sticks to the plane especially because many solutions contain a sticking agent that helps it adhere to the plant. Then wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that as that plane was flying to and from its target at probably not more than 100 feet higher than when it is actually spraying that fumes from that plane could be noticed especially by someone highly sensitive to it. Those that refuse to see act like once the chemical is applied it goes right to the plant and that is the end of it. If that were true then how does it keep working for months. Why are workers not allowed into fields for days after some chemicals are applied? Why could the old chemical 2,4-D under the right weather conditions pick up and move and kill not targeted crops as much as ¾ mile away. Yes there are none as blind as those who will not see!
I would also like to clear up some misunderstanding about the difference between organic and commercial crops. Someone asked a friend of mine the difference and he told them that organic uses no sprays. That is not correct. There are some organically approved sprays we can use. The difference is in their chemical makeup and in their residual affect. Most if not all organic applications have no residual which means that they are easily removed from the plant, usually with water. Commercial sprays usually have at least a season long residual which means the product remains active all season long regardless of the weather. In the case of bt corn the only way to remove that chemical from the plant is totally reverse the genetic makeup of the corn plant. So if you hear an organic farmer mention spraying, don’t think he is lying about being organic. Just ask him what he was using and how it is safe to use.
Your friend in farming bringing you food with integrity.