Thing is, we didn't always have herbicides and farmers managed to raise food just fine. When I was little, the most common summer job for older kids and teens was weeding. You went out in teams of several dozen, each person armed with a hoe or a hook, and you cut the weeds out of the corn and bean fields. Those jobs are gone now. But if herbicides stop working, all we have to do revive those jobs. The farm bills might need to be adjusted, but before you assume that, compare the cost of spraying multiple herbicides over and over through the season. Food has to stay affordable or the country will come apart at the seams; if that means a bigger boost from taxes, that's doable. Don't panic over the loss of herbicides; we still have hoes.
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- Elizabeth Barrette (
ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
- Mood:
busy
Weeds and Grain
Thing is, we didn't always have herbicides and farmers managed to raise food just fine. When I was little, the most common summer job for older kids and teens was weeding. You went out in teams of several dozen, each person armed with a hoe or a hook, and you cut the weeds out of the corn and bean fields. Those jobs are gone now. But if herbicides stop working, all we have to do revive those jobs. The farm bills might need to be adjusted, but before you assume that, compare the cost of spraying multiple herbicides over and over through the season. Food has to stay affordable or the country will come apart at the seams; if that means a bigger boost from taxes, that's doable. Don't panic over the loss of herbicides; we still have hoes.
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Photographs
I took some pictures of my yard today. Read about what makes a good wildlife yard and Fieldhaven as habitat. The larger brush pile is still…
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Birdfeeding
Today is partly sunny and delightfully mild. I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of house finches and a few sparrows. I walked around the yard…
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Fieldhaven as Habitat
If you follow my posts on gardening, birdfeeding, and photos, then you know that I garden for wildlife. Looking at the YardMap parameters, here…
March 8 2019, 17:00:19 UTC 2 years ago Edited: March 8 2019, 17:01:38 UTC
Glyphosate, for instance. Glyphosate (Round-up) works like a charm when used correctly: in dry, calm weather only, cut the weed down to ground level and apply the herbicide directly to the cut stem. The Federal government requires that we Weed Warriors take an hour-long class in herbicides every year, and what they tell is is "The label is the law" - what that means is you follow all the safety protocols every single time, or you are in violation. (This being the Federal government, of course their main concern here is seeing that we don't ever have a valid reason to sue Fish & Wildlife.)
Just last year we had a huge to-do in our county over herbicide use. I went to both hearings and spoke at one of them, in favor of the county continuing its herbicide use, because y'know what happens when it doesn't? Private citizens, who are NOT bound by "the label is the law", spray all kinds of horrific stuff around indiscriminately. You've probably heard the thing about "oh, just use vinegar instead" - ha! Acetic acid in concentrations high enough to be effective is far more destructive to the environment than glyphosate.
"Don't panic over the loss of herbicides; we still have hoes."
That's like saying "Don't panic over the loss of antibiotics; we still have herbal tea." Sure, farmers managed to raise food, but it wasn't necessarily "just fine". They managed to raise families too, back in the days before vaccinations and antibiotics, but how many babies did a woman have to bear in order to have a chance of some surviving to adulthood?