Spray Thy Neighbor (Evidence Version)

Evidence for label violations in the aerial application of the herbicide Dicamba, 8/9/08, Ulster County, NY

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• cropdusting
• herbicide
• ban
• dicamba
• drift
• inversion
• buffer
• zone
• woodcrest
• bruderhof
• publickindness
• chuck
• weber
• dec

[79Testo]

@publickindness

He's poisoning the crap out of you....Dicamba is dangerous stuff.

[goose27]

Did you have a case, it seems so. The community was not expecting an application so late in the season? I don't know. Is there no way you can get records of wind data at the time? If drift was an issue this could be possible.

The key is the industry working with the community, blanket discrimination of applicators in unecessary.

I hope your community can work closer with farmers in the future.

Good luck.

[goose27]

The industry must be watched, agreed. But these profesionals would rather spend their weekend with their families. "Buzzing" residential neighborhoods is not what they do. Reducingthis profession to some sort of game is one reason you will find it hard to get their serious attention. Do you also wonder what would happen if a gas truck had a driver fall ill whie driving through your town on horrible winter day with ice covered roads,

[goose27]

Stunt pilots!!! Now come on, this is where you lose me. Stunt pilots fly upside down cutting ribbons. Aerial applicators must posses at least a commercial pilots licence. They are also members of local rural communities and have no intent to ruin there livelihood or poison their family or neighbors. Take a close look at this field, not something an Ag pilot would take lightly. Its tight and near residents, evry pilots nightmare. Not an easy target to scrutinize, get real! Blind t

[goose27]

Goodwill exhusted, yes, but nothing vindictive about it.

Like you stated, a job being well done. There seems to be no drift case here so the actual task of spraying was done without error. It seems like an attempt to save a crop, who knows what effect it had, only the farmer would know, maybe you do too?

[publickindness]

Easy target? You said it, not me, and I still disagree. It is not an easy task to scrutinize this activity, to counter the blind trust in their competence that accounts for the lack of supervision or regulation. What other professional is allowed to buzz residential neighborhoods weekend, weekday, sun-up to sundown, loaded with toxic chemicals? And we will all rue the day when an aircraft fails, or the pilot suffers a health crisis of his or her own while on the job.

[publickindness]

Regarding Applicators being an easy target even when they are doing their job, and a hard one at that. I agree, it is a difficult job. I admire stunt-pilots enormously. The risks they take are hard to imagine. Their role in fire fighting is essential. But in agriculture, too, theres a difference between a job being done and a job being done well. In this case, who did the scouting? Who read the label? Who was doing their job? We were.

[publickindness]

Regarding the captive audience that it (sic) opponents have - conventional farmers dont need it - they have the power. They have the chemical producers, fast food chains, grocery distributors, commodity markets behind them. Thats why in NY State there is no legal requirement for farmers to notify neighbors or the DEC of whats being sprayed, when, where, on what, and for what. No notification, no enforcement. That's why there are no buffer zones established either.

[publickindness]

Cornell Continued...

Application by aircraft increases the potential for exposure of humans, livestock, and wildlife due to spray drift and ventilation.

Kiss our troubled river goodbye.

From Pesticide Action Network

Banvel/Dicamba is banned in South Africa, and has a high potential for ground water contamination.

We live 60 yards from the field. The field borders the un-swimmable Wallkill River. All of us have well water.

[publickindness]

Cornell Continued...

Desirable broadleaf plants (such as fruit trees, tomatoes, etc.) may be harmed during their growth and development stages.

Banvel, the dimethylamine salt of dicamba, had a reputation for spray and/or vapor drift that could injure sensitive crops

The DEC advised us to cover our organic herbs, vegetables, and ornamentals - which we did - two days running.