Date:   10/9/2004 7:59:50 PM ( 20 y ago)
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Startling New Book Reveals Toxic Waste in Our Foods



Does the U.S. government permit dangerous poisons in “fertilizers” for your food crops? Of course they do.



Exclusive to American Free Press

By John Tiffany



How much lead is in the fries you eat? There may be more than you think, as well as a number of other poisons—and not only in your potatoes and carrots.

U.S. farmers and gardeners are unknowingly spreading fertilizers containing toxic waste on farm fields and home gardens—arsenic, cadmium, lead and beryllium, dioxins and furans, among others. These are industrial byproducts so toxic it is illegal to dump them into the air or water. They come from such hazardous waste products as “fly ash” and cement kiln dust—anything is acceptable, as long as it contains a modicum of “plant nutrient,” such as nitrogen or phosphorus. It is not just sewage sludge that is involved. Never mind that a large part of the “product” may be highly poisonous to humans and animals. (Cadmium is non-toxic to plants, which take it up from the soil, but will harm animals and humans.)

Farmers may be happy initially with the results, since the problems do not show up overnight. It may take years of this process before the soil and crops are visibly destroyed. In the meantime, insidious poisons may be entering the crops destined for consumption by humans, livestock and pets.

Although our government is sworn to protect us from cradle to grave, it is thanks to confusing government se man tics that these same hazardous wastes are being applied to the crops that become food we eat. There are no tests required by the government, no regulatory limits, and no required disclosure. They cannot seem to get rid of it in any other way, or at least not inexpensively, so they simply redefine noxious slime as “good for you.” And a nice profit is made in the bargain.

And until a small-town mayor from a farming community in Washington state got suspicious, nobody outside of the perpetrators of this outrage and the government knew about it.

Mayor Patty Martin remained dedicated to her cause even when the town that elected her turned against her. Mayor Martin’s obsession with hazardous waste in fertilizer began when she met Dennis DeYoung, a local farmer whose land was rendered sterile after the Cenex/Land O’Lakes company (the agribusiness folks that make the butter) paid him to spread the residue from their fertilizer rinse pond on his land. But there was more than fertilizer residue there—it was a witches’ brew of hazardous metals, cancer-causing chemicals, and even radioactive materials that hadn’t been produced by the company itself. DeYoung and Martin wanted to know how they got there and why.

Mayor Martin, a housewife, mother of four and may or of the small farming town of Quincy, began to notice a pattern of failing crops, infertile topsoil and rare diseases in her community in the early 1990s. When she asked tough questions about this pattern, she encountered evasions and resistance from some local businesses and farmers, which only made her dig deeper.

This book exposes a real-life toxic waste scandal focused ultimately on the food eaten by millions of Americans. Duff Wilson, an experienced investigative re porter, does a great job of distilling the Science (and the politics) behind the news story. He effectively weaves the life of an unlikely small-town heroine into the larger perspective. Fateful Harvest is a compelling and accessible read. It is an impassioned exposé about an alarming trend. The real scandal Wilson uncovers is the industry amorality and government complicity in the practice of using toxic waste as “plant food.”

Complacency allows this outrageous and downright stupid (but profitable) practice to continue even now. Wilson and Martin ask questions the Environmental Protection Agency has been unwilling to answer, such as: Why should there be a limit on the amount of lead in paint and dioxin in cement but not in the fertilizer spread over farmlands and gardens? And is there a correlation between the widespread use of toxins in fertilizers and the rise in childhood illnesses and cancers since the early 1980s?

While many will say, “it can’t be so,” convincing evidence is marshaled by this book. What is most scary is that the scandal is still going on. Toxic waste is turned into fertilizer and spread on the food supply; but federal government politicians shrug their shoulders while innocent lives are being destroyed.



Fateful Harvest by Duff Wilson ($28.50, 322 pages, hardcover) is available from First Amendment Books, 1433 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. 20003.




 

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