40 million pounds of herbicides, insecticides used in Oregon in 2007

[Guest guest]

Given the associations between autism and pesticides (and other

pollutants), no wonder corporate media personnel chant a mantra " autism

is a mystery " , no wonder the USDA has decreed that pesticide reporting

is not needed. How many other states have similarly large levels of

pesticides, herbicides, etc, added to farmland?

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Oregon accounts for 40 million pounds of herbicides, insecticides

Posted by Learn

The Oregonian July 30, 2008 18:17PM

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/07/oregon_accounts_for_40_million.h\

tml

After a nine-year political scrum, Oregon released its first accounting

of pesticide use Wednesday, cataloging more than 40 million pounds of

551 fumigants, herbicides and insecticides applied to the state's lands

and waters in 2007.

The bulk of the pesticides, about 85 percent, were used for agriculture,

from potato fields to nurseries to Christmas tree farms. Two of the top

five chemicals applied -- the fumigants metam-sodium and

1,3-dichoropropene -- are listed as cancer causing in California's

reporting system.

By the Legislature's design, the report from the Oregon Department of

Agriculture included little context. Unlike California, the state didn't

list the acres treated, for example, detail pesticides used on specific

crops or itemize pesticides considered carcinogenic or reproductive toxins.

Pesticide use was broken down in 13 broad " basins " around the state, the

largest of them at 17,000 square miles. By contrast, California requires

agricultural users to report by the square mile. Oregon's Legislature

opted for the larger reporting area amid concerns about regulators or

anti-pesticide activists using the data to target farmers and foresters.

But Oregon advocates, who have lobbied for reporting since 1999, hailed

the 27-page report as a good start. Oregon is behind California in

generating meaningful data, they said, but it's one of a handful of

states tracking pesticide use at all.

" I would like more detailed information, but politically that's going

to be a hard battle, " said Aimee Code, water quality coordinator for the

Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. " For me, it's always

just shocking to look at how many pounds of things that we know are

poisons are being put on our land and water. "

Terry Witt, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, said

the pesticides are spread over a huge number of acres -- some 17 million

farm acres alone. Farmers and foresters have been far more sparing with

pesticide applications in recent years, he said, in part to save money

as prices go up.

" These tools are tested, and I think our people for the most part use

them extremely judiciously, " said Witt, whose group's mission includes

protecting responsible pesticide applicators from overregulation. " I

don't think (the report) should be too alarming. "

The 40 million pound total came in higher than earlier estimates of

around 10 million to 20 million pounds. But Oregon's agricultural sector

is about a fifth the size of California's -- and the report's total is

about a fifth of the 190 million pounds California reported in 2006.

The use catalogued in the report included 18.5 million pounds of

pesticides on field crops, 6.3 million pounds on vegetables, 4.2 million

pounds on fruit and nut trees, 2.9 million pounds on seed crops, and 1.5

million pounds on nurseries and Christmas tree farms.

The top pesticide, at 17 million pounds, was metam-sodium, a soil

fumigant often used before planting potatoes, the Northwest's most

pesticide-intensive crop, to penetrate the ground and extinguish most

soil life. Other high use pesticides, 1,3-dichloropropene and methyl

bromide, are also fumigants.

Fumigants are typically applied at far higher rates per acre than

herbicides or insecticides, pushing them to the top when applications

are reported by pound, as Oregon did, instead of by acre. But they also

break down quickly and aren't applied directly to a plant, lowering

public exposure.

The herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, was widely

used. The top pesticide applied to homes by exterminators, the

insecticide Bifenthrin, is highly toxic to fish.

Advocates plan to lobby the 2009 Legislature for more detailed reporting

and to extend the requirement for reporting beyond 2009, when it's due

to expire.

Hackenmiller-Paradis, the Oregon Environmental Council's

environmental health director, said reporting use by river watersheds

instead of the far broader basins would help tie in water quality

testing and the state's efforts to help farmers cut back on pesticides.

Both programs are run at a watershed level.

The state also needs to report specific use at schools and in parks, she

said. At this point, the Department of Agriculture believes that would

violate the Legislature's instructions to keep all the reporting

confidential, said Kirby, administrator of the department's

pesticides division.

Jepson, head of Oregon State University's Integrated Plant

Protection Center, said universities, non-profits and the government are

pushing hard to find alternatives for the riskiest pesticides. In Idaho,

for example, potato farmers are planting mustard, then plowing it under

as a " green manure " to substitute for fumigants.

Oregon's new report sets a benchmark to measure progress against, Jepson

said: " We would be expecting to see the numbers go down over time. "

-- Learn;

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*Government pesticide and fertilizer data dropped.

<http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/esthag/asap/html/es801937k.html>

The USDA has eliminated the only federal program that tracks the use of

pesticides and fertilizers on American farms. Environmental Science &

Technology.