Knowing how much our food supply depends on chemicals bums me out. Using those chemicals to fight weeds may also bum out farmers, says new research from France:
[Harvard professor Marc] Weisskopf's group reports in the American Journal of Epidemiology that 83 farmers, about 15 percent, said they had been treated for depression. Forty-seven of them had never used pesticides, while 36 had.
Among the farmers without Parkinson's disease, 37 who had never used herbicides and 20 who had used the weedkillers reported being treated for depression.
There was no difference in the risk of having depression among the farmers who had used fungicides or insecticides, compared to those who hadn't used any pesticide.
But when the researchers took into account factors linked with depression, such as age and cigarette smoking, they determined that those farmers exposed to weedkillers were nearly two and a half times as likely to have had depression.
Furthermore, farmers who had greater exposure - either more hours or longer years using herbicides - also had a greater chance of having depression than farmers who had used weedkillers less [Kerry Grens, "Weedkillers Tied to Depression in Farmers," Reuters, 2013.07.26].
Say it with me: correlation does not prove causation. It could be that farmers using herbicide suffer more depression because they have enslaved themselves to the ag-industrial complex to make a living.
But you know, my friend Charlie Johnson, Orland's organic farming mogul, always seems to have a smile on his face. Maybe it's just because he can have visitors over to his farm without worrying that Monsanto will call in an air strike.
High use of herbicides depresses me too. I love my little organic garden: Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, melons, greens. I'd like to have more, but my space is limited. There are farmers markets for other stuff.
Since the weeds are naturally adapting to glyphosate, the EPA has decided to let farmers use more. So everyone will have the opportunity to study this issue at the new higher levels. http://www.naturallysavvy.com/health-concerns/epa-raises-limits-of-monsanto-s-toxic-herbicide-glyphosate
Agriculture has been changing the world for 1000s of years. At one time, cows gave little milk. Dogs looked like wolves and chickens did not have the many colors and shapes present today. The "organic" foods we rave about today are man made through selective breeding. The Garden of Eden did not turn into the Garden of Eat'n without changing the planet.
But then there are probably more chickens and cattle alive today than at any time in our planets history.
The article below describes the damage done to freshwater mussels through pre-historic cultivation of corn in North America.
http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/ja_peacock001.pdf
PS - Life in rural France may be depressing without chemicals.
If ag can change one way, it can change another.
Depression, what about cancer. When I was farming in the 80's the elevator manager told me of a good hard working Christian guy from a couple towns over who had operated the their elevators weed sprayer for five years. He now had cancer. So he went to one of those big hospitals in Sioux Falls and they asked him if they could do an experiment on him. They wanted to check his liver and kidneys and anything else that takes toxins out of the body to see if the weed sprays had shown up there. He being a good responsible person who wanted to improve the world, agreed to the experiment. The doctors found all the sprays he had used in those organs. He lived a while longer and the doctors stated thinking more and asked him if he would be willing to do another experiment with them. They checked most of the other organs of his body and found most of those had all those same chemicals in them also. So people who use chemicals get those chemicals all over in their bodies and coincidentally get cancer. I am sure more research could be done on this and probably already has, but it does not take rocket science to realize that these chemicals make a difference in our lives, and not all good differences.