(A thought-provoking note for the first day of spring!)
It may just be because we grow naturally and love Mother Earth.
It may be just because I have an eight-year-old grandson that I would love to see grow up happy and healthy.
Then again, it may be just because!
We do not like to use pesticides. We encourage good bugs. Use companion planting. Pull weeks and maintain our gardens by hand – inside and out! It never bothered me to get down into the dirt (The ugly part is trying to get back up with fake knees – LOL), up close and personal with our plants. I really enjoy it – yes, even pulling weeds.
Roughly 20 years ago, our local PBS station ran a program called: My Father’s Farm…this was eye-opening to me. It was narrated by a woman recalling her childhood on the farm. She shared how her father got sick and died early due to the pesticides (remember, the childhood was the 40’s – 60’s eras) used back then. I remember growing up on a farm with animals and equipment to maintain the 80 acres we had. I remember Dad mixing up stuff to go put on the fields to chase off the bugs and weeds, but I never thought twice about it because it was just what farmers did. (Note: I have tried in vain to find the old documentary – if I should come across it, I will share because it is worth watching!) My father died at age 54 of cancer.
Now I am not blaming everything toxic for my father’s cancer. He smoked like a chimney since he was a young teenager. But I am sure the pesticides did not help.
PBS ran a similar story in 1996 called: My Father’s Garden…this is similar, but not as scary as the “farm” one. It talks more about changes in farming and gardening.
Those of you that read me also know that I receive the MNN (Mother Nature Network) newsletter. I just received this little beauty: Roundup weed killer deemed a carcinogen, at least in California by Jenn Savedge
I am a fast reader, so it only took me about 15 minutes to read this article – however – I also had to swing out and check out the facts they list, which took me much longer. Pretty scary findings from my point of view. Just one more reason for my sister and I to choose no chemicals on our little piece of Earth. Besides, I am pretty sure if our chickens went mutant, they would learn how to open doors, get into my bedroom at night, and scare the snot out of me!
(This is sooo not right!!)
HELBERG FARM STORIES 
I grew up in Florida and all summer when the kids were out playing, trucks would drive around spraying insecticide into the air to kill mosquitoes. I can’t imagine that back in the early 70’s and 80’s anyone paid any attention to how it would affect humans! I still remember the smell – and the taste – of it.
My mother grew up on a citrus farm in S. Florida, 1940’s to 1960’s. She got a very rare form of cancer that took her at 57, after years of fighting it. It formed in her abdomen first – just where she used to carry fresh fruit in her shirt.
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I understand completely! They still spray out here for the mosquitoes – more so in the city (they leave us alone – yea!). We have tons-o-frogs and toad and lizards and snakes. Also bats at night to help with our beasties. We have also been trying some different natural repellants…always on the look-out for natural!
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Some of the older herbicides were downright scary.
Anyone remember 2,3,5-T?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic_acid
Or a common herbicide available today 2,4-D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic_acid
And then what you got when you mixed them together? Yeah… Agent Orange. I’ll bet you all recognise that name!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
Some of this is downright horrific. But you can use herbicides if you are really careful. But even then I think a lot of what they tell us is… Well… for lack of a better term.. bollocks.
Either that or they have yet to learn what it can do.
The impressive point was when they told you that you could drink round up.
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/01/22/lobbyist-says-monsantos-roundup-is-safe-to-drink-when-offered-a-glass-he-freaks-out/
If in doubt… Dig it out. Your compost bin will love you for it. B-)
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Thanx Kal!! I can see it gets your goat too!! grrr I understand “feed the world” but is it feed or poison? So glad we have our own to grow on!
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I get the drive behind it. I really do. I’ll bet it was full of the best intentions. I think we have just taken to many steps.
Also… People are used to what they see as perfection now.
The food had to be just so and a certain colour or size of shape.
Nature just isn’t like that.
However… I do like the haber process for fertilizers. I don’t think we could keep crops going in our present system without it and changing systems now would be monumentally difficult and expensive as hell
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