Why We Need Organic Agriculture Protecting children
Often, Pesticides Also Inside Food -- So Can't Be Washed Off
Often, Pesticides Also Inside Food -- So Can't Be Washed Off
What many mothers do not know is that many pesticides are systemic, which means they are drawn into the crops with the water they take in because they are water soluble. You can't wash them off because they are inside every
inch of the plant.
Some farmers like systemic pesticides better because they don't wash off the plant when it rains or degrade in the sun. The insects bite the plant and die.
In addition to systemic insecticides used on food crops, a National Academy of Sciences report said, "almost all newer fungicides are systemic." Furthermore, the report said 90 percent of these systemic fungicides are oncogenic, meaning they can possibly lead to the development of cancer.
Babies -- born and unborn -- are much more vulnerable to chemical injury from pesticides because their bodies are still developing. A wrong chemical signal in the early years can cause development to go awry.
DANGERS OF PESTICIDES:
Prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides, which is often used on food crops, is related to lower scores on intelligence tests at age 7, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health, who did a study on this.
Also significant, Dr. Bruce Lanphear, the director of the Children's environmental Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, said pesticide exposure can impair the development of the brain's prefrontal cortex -- actually shrinking it -- causing attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and behavoral problems, along with later-life learning and social problems -- even criminal behavior.
The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain controlling short-term memory and instant gratification responses.
Another danger of pesticide usage -- one of the most urgent problems facing mankind -- is "genetic degradation." Do you want to pass on degraded genes to future generations -- your daughter contracting breast cancer when she is 40 years old because of genes she inherited?
A National Academy of Sciences report summarizing the dangers of pesticides to children and babies listed cancer, acute and chronic injury to the nervous system, lung damage, reproductive dysfunction and possibly dysfunction of the endocrine and immune systems. (Annie's note: endocrine system dysfunction can lead to diabetes.)
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Pesticides can even effect your temperament.
Amazing Study on Rats and Pesticides
Amazing Study on Rats and Pesticides
A scientist working in India undertook a study to compare the behavior and other characteristics of rats fed food grown with pesticides
to that of rats fed on food grown organically (without pesticides.)
He discovered that the rats raised on food grown with pesticides were vicious and often had to be separated from each other to keep them from killing each other. In contrast, rats fed on nutritious food grown without pesticides were found to be gentle, affectionate, playful, never ill, had healthy offspring and mated with enthusiasm, said the researcher, Dr. Robert McCarrison, who was head of a nutritional research department.
This should not be surprising to us considering that pesticides work by damaging and destroying the nervous system.
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The impact of pesticides on children.
What We Do to the Earth We Do To The Children
What We Do to the Earth We Do To The Children
Farming sustainably
Farmers Need to Nurture -- Not Kill -- The Life in the Soil
Farmers Need to Nurture -- Not Kill -- The Life in the Soil
We can learn from their struggle.
Cuba's Transition to Organic Agriculture
Cuba's Transition to Organic Agriculture
We need to relearn the old way.
How Farmers of Old Controlled Insects Better -- Without Pesticides
How Farmers of Old Controlled Insects Better -- Without Pesticides
As bird populations dwindle
How Pesticides Menace Birds
How Pesticides Menace Birds
Nature is dying.
Weep for the Frogs
Weep for the Frogs
In this video, you will see that we urgently need strong government protection for endangered species, not deregulatory, lasseiz faire policies of Republicans.(Remember how George Bush rolled back or gutted 200 environmental protections?)
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Will we have to pollinate the natural world by hand?
Our Dying Earth: How Pollinators Struggle to Survive
Our Dying Earth: How Pollinators Struggle to Survive
One of many reasons to eat organic food
Is Organic Food More Nutritious?
Is Organic Food More Nutritious?
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Europe leads the way.
Lets Create Millions of Jobs by Diverting Farm Subsidies to Organic Farmers
Lets Create Millions of Jobs by Diverting Farm Subsidies to Organic Farmers
Have we forgotten the lessons she taught us?
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring