By Elaine Peters
“Where have all the flowers gone?” Gone with all the bees, butterflies, birds and bats. They are slowly passing into oblivion. Chemical pesticides used in our agriculture are obliterating the good along with the bad. But maybe chemical safety is on the way.
After more than 20 years, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act for the 21st Century Act has been passed. Miraculously, this was a bipartisan voice vote, an anomaly in our current Congress. There were no objections from either side. What this act does is eradicate the dysfunctional, unfair Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976. It had holes in it as harmful as the toxin glyphosate used in Roundup, which is mainly used on GMO crops, but is also used unnecessarily to dry wheat, oats and other products. This quick chemical method of drying is applied because it yields more and faster profits for corporations. The health of people is the sacrifice.
The abuse of chemicals in our fields and foods is very discouraging, although this new chemical safety act is encouraging. It is showing corporations that they should remove glyphosate and other equally deadly, overused and abused toxic chemicals from our food system. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should share in collective guilt. It does not respond to the public outcry against pesticides or chemical abuse of how we grow and treat our food but rather panders to an infestation. The EPA is managed by”former employees of Monsanto and DuPont “who want GMO seeds to prevail and also want to undermine the efforts of farmers who want to grow organic vegetables and fruit and label them as such. As a result, we, in the United States, have more digestive problems, allergies and cancers on the rise because of our government’s failure to protect us.
The EPA has forgotten how to protect our health. Recently, for example, “the Dark Act” was signed by President Obama. It tells us which products have GMOs in them by obscuring GMO labeling. When we shop, we need a phone app to decipher a small mark on a product that will then tell us if it has GMOs in it. Why couldn’t a simple label be used for all to easily read? Well, the food industry thinks that the less consumers know, the better. Really?
The new Chemical Safety Act of the 21st Century is a start. Nevertheless, it will take years and even decades to uncover unsafe chemicals in the kind of food system we have. In all honesty, it doesn’t take years to understand that glyphosate and other similar chemicals are dangerous to more than the bees, butterflies, birds and bats. In the meantime, the safest route is to buy organic, support small farms, and ask for changes in labeling and our food system.
