Re: Unidentified subject!

Amen, Lorraine!  The same holds true in the animal production field. I read comments to the effect that the feed industry puts who knows what into animal feeds just to make a buck, without regard to safety or efficacy. I have managed feed mills for 21 years now, and the feed industry is conscientious about what additives are used and in what quantities.  It's very easy to criticize something that we don't personally have any knowledge of, particularly if it pertains to our food or health.  Were it not for commercial vegetable growers and livestock producers, a heck of a lot of us would be going to bed hungry at night..Like Lorraine, I don't want to start a war, but the 2% of the population that is feeding the rest of us needs some help getting the real story out somehow.  No one cares more about having a healthy food supply than the farmers supplying that food. 
 
Bill Huhman
----- Original Message -----
From: g*@syix.com
To: v*@eskimo.com
Sent: Friday, June 04, 1999 6:06 PM
Subject: Unidentified subject!

A quick comment on Beth G's remark about commercial growers using chemicals.  It is a fact that commercial growers use fewer chemicals than the backyard gardeners.  Hard to believe?  Well it's true.
It's all those lawns  that home owners pile chemicals on to keep them looking green and weed free. Also many home gardeners do not want any bugs or insects around and spray wildly around without thinking of the predators that are being killed as well. 
Yes I am a grower, almonds and prunes, and we are restricted to the bare minimum of chemical spray that can be used on our orchards. We also monitor the existence of insect damage before we even think of using a chemical.  Two reasons.  Our crops are edibles and chemicals are expensive. 
On the page you recommended to Bill, you will note that the university made it clear that the grower must use traps or other means to establish the damage expected from insects at any particular time.  We do not, we cannot,  just haphazardly spray away.
Hope I am not starting a war here. It is just that farmers, growers, have this weird reputation of not caring about the environment and it's just not true.
L
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