Gut says chemicals aren’t so safe

To the editor:
In case you have been too busy with other important agendas such as surfing the net or Facebooking and you missed it, I would like to call your attention to a letter to the editor published in The CR Jan. 3 written by Jeffery Steed.
He writes about the demise of the honey bee and what consequences we humans may face if this tiny insect that pollinates one third of the food we eat becomes extinct due to the chemicals that are commonly sprayed on our food crop these days.
First let me state that my intention is not to sow discord among my farmer friends and neighbors as I know they have to be efficient to make a profit and I believe they are required to attend classes and log data concerning what spray they apply to their fields, but my gut tells me that they may not be getting the full truth from the multi billion dollar a year chemical companies like Monsanto and Bayer. The scientists and researchers hired by these companies claim that Glysophate, the active ingredient in Roundup weed killer has no bioaccumulation properties and the chemicals that we ingest are passed harmlessly through our urine.
So my gut wants to know why Glysophate has been found in mothers’ breast milk all across the United States and what effect these chemicals have on a baby whose body is getting a developmental kick start on weed killer. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a scientist and have no proof to refute these highly-paid researchers’ clams but remember at one time PCB’s, DDT and Agent Orange were considered safe for humans.
DDT was banned in the 1970’s and now you can read studies that claim that women that were exposed to it are five times more likely to develop breast cancer — ever notice how many women in their mid 40’s are in the obituary column these days?
If there are any women in your life you should have noticed by now.
Do you ever wonder why 5-year-old children are getting cancer? Mr. Steed writes about the honey bee being an indicator of the health of our environment and I also, as a lifelong observer of nature have noticed the disappearance of the large yellow and black spiders that used to be everywhere when I was young. Also several species of snakes that are no longer here. (I can hear the sighs and see the eye rolls already.) Spiders and snakes you say, who cares.
Well, the small creatures that crawl the earth are only the first to die off. I thought I may have detected a slight reluctance on Mr. Steed part in reading his article to be labeled an “environmentalist” like someone that is aware of the health of the world that we are handing down to our children is a bad thing.
I can only hope that some day no parent I know is sitting in a children’s oncology ward passing time showing their sick child pictures of butterflies that used to be seen around here when the parent was young.
There was an Indian chief named Chief Seattle that lived in what is now Washington state who died in 1866. The city of Seattle was named after him, an uneducated man that lived over 150 years ago noticed and abhorred we invading Europeans’ disregard for the natural world and he was attributed this quote, “What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man, all things are connected, whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.”
My gut tells me there is more truth in this short saying than in all combined volumes of data released by the large chemical company’s paid researchers.
Respectfully,
Douglas Burke
Portland