Comment by dejv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dejv | Hacker News Reader

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I don't know how this thing goes outside of EU, but here as a farmer I have to go throgh state multiday exams every few years that makes me personally liable for all harm to other crops, population of bees and people who actually operate tractors.

As a person in charge of spray program I have to make sure that weather condition is ok to spray (temperature, wind), my sprayers comply to standards and are tested in certified laboratory (things jet size, droplet size and uniformity) and I need to log every information and keep all that records for years to be checked by authorities anytime (and they do check them often).

It is easy to see pesticides as a easy target, but I am affraid that it is actually not easy to dump toxic in the air, water and land as almost any gram of pesticide and packaging have to be accounted for and handled with care.

(btw I am working in organic agriculture and do not use any pesticides except of sulfur and bit of a copper and I don't have any interest in conventional agriculture business)

Yeah, same here in Ontario I can't even spray organic products without a pesticide applicators license which involves a training course.

That's not to say the other local farmers don't do stupid things though. I get glyphosate drift into my vineyard almost every year.

Glyphosate is a lot safer than many organic products. Of course the later is a "chemical" with a "scary" name, while the later has great marketing and has been used for thousands of years.

You're not getting it and not telling me anything informative. It kills my grapevines. It's safe for humans and shitty to plants that aren't engineered to tolerate it. It's a dick-neighbour thing to do to spray it indiscriminately and in the wrong weather conditions but it happens _all the time_

It is harmful to your grapevines when it reaches them, that is very true and I don't want to down play that.

However it is less harmful than most organic options overall. It is completely harmless to humans or other wildlife. It doesn't build up over time.

It's pretty widely accepted in the medical community that pesticides are correlated to Parkinson's. It seems to be connected to exposure over time, not necessarily build up in the body.

You are right that a so-called natural pesticide like rotenone seems to be even worse. They were able to induce parkinson with it in rats in just a few weeks. But also Glyphosate is looked at with a lot of suspicion.

Take this case study, they refer to several cases and epidemiologic research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30799335/

Considering the medical attention and research it gets, I see no reason to be as sure as you are. Especially your believe that "it's completely harmless" seems to have no solid reasoning behind it.

Hi Porcupine, sounds like your region could do with one of our mesonets! That being said, in Australia, weather conditions are often too hot to spray during the day hence many farmers look to spray early morning, dusk or at night-time. These times tend to be prime inversion weather which leads to mass long-distance spray drift events from multiple sources (hence the need for our mesonet). I assume in Ontario, spraying can usually be done during the day even in summer, so farmers spraying during an inversion is less of an issue there? Or is that a false assumption? Do you suspect that the glyphosate drift into your vineyard is localised from your neighbour?

Water in Netherlands next to pastures and farmlands often had high levels of toxicity, meaning it was treated as chemical waste. Because of strict regulations got better. Still happens to certain rivers. Had natural parc next to river where I get my meat call back meat because of too high levels of toxicity just last year.

Certain factories here also still allowed to dump chemicals which in other countries are not allowed etc.

Next to that, in certain areas here residential areas and fruit trees mix. So even with limited spraying and limited wind, you are sitting in the garden while tractor is spraying the trees a few meters from you.

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