Toxic Corporations Are Destroying the Planet’s Soil

Guest Post by Colin Todhunter

A newly published analysis in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science argues that a toxic soup of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides is causing havoc beneath fields covered in corn, soybeans, wheat and other monoculture crops. The research is the most comprehensive review ever conducted on how pesticides affect soil health.

The study is discussed by two of the report’s authors, Nathan Donley and Tari Gunstone, in a recent article appearing on the Scientific American website.

The authors state that the findings should bring about immediate changes in how regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assess the risks posed by the nearly 850 pesticide ingredients approved for use in the USA.

Conducted by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and the University of Maryland, the research looked at almost 400 published studies that together had carried out more than 2800 experiments on how pesticides affect soil organisms. The review encompassed 275 unique species or types of soil organisms and 284 different pesticides or pesticide mixtures.

Pesticides were found to harm organisms that are critical to maintaining healthy soils in over 70 per cent of cases. But Donley and Gunstone say this type of harm is not considered in the EPA’s safety reviews, which ignore pesticide harm to earthworms, springtails, beetles and thousands of other subterranean species.

The EPA uses a single test species to estimate risk to all soil organisms, the European honeybee, which spends its entire life above ground in artificial boxes. But 50-100 per cent of all pesticides end up in soil.

The researchers conclude that the ongoing escalation of pesticide-intensive agriculture and pollution are major driving factors in the decline of soil organisms. By carrying out wholly inadequate reviews, the regulatory system serves to protect the pesticide industry.

The study comes in the wake of other recent findings that indicate high levels of the weedkiller chemical glyphosate and its toxic breakdown product AMPA have been found in topsoil samples from no-till fields in Brazil.

Writing on the GMWatch website, Claire Robinson and Jonathan Matthews note that, despite this, the agrochemical companies seeking the renewal of the authorisation of glyphosate by the European Union in 2022 are saying that one of the greatest benefits of glyphosate is its ability to foster healthier soils by reducing the need for tillage (or ploughing).

This in itself is misleading because farmers are resorting to ploughing given increasing weed resistance to glyphosate and organic agriculture also incorporates no till methods. At the same time, proponents of glyphosate conveniently ignore or deny its toxicity to soils, water, humans and wildlife.

With that in mind, it is noteworthy that GMWatch also refers to another recent study which says that glyphosate is responsible for a five per cent increase in infant mortality in Brazil.

The new study, ‘Pesticides in a case study on no-tillage farming systems and surrounding forest patches in Brazil’ in the journal Scientific Reports, leads the researchers to conclude that glyphosate-contaminated soil can adversely impact food quality and human health and ecological processes for ecosystem services maintenance. They argue that glyphosate and AMPA presence in soil may promote toxicity to key species for biodiversity conservation, which are fundamental for maintaining functioning ecological systems.

These studies reiterate the need to shift away from increasingly discredited ‘green revolution’ ideology and practices. This chemical-intensive model has helped the drive towards greater monocropping and has resulted in less diverse diets and less nutritious foods. Its long-term impact has led to soil degradation and mineral imbalances, which in turn have adversely affected human health.

If we turn to India, for instance, that country is losing 5334 million tonnes of soil every year due to soil erosion and degradation, much of which is attributed to the indiscreet and excessive use of synthetic agrochemicals. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research reports that soil is becoming deficient in nutrients and fertility.

India is not unique in this respect. Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization stated back in 2014 that if current rates of degradation continue all of the world’s topsoil could be gone within 60 years. She noted that about a third of the world’s soil had already been degraded. There is general agreement that chemical-heavy farming techniques are a major cause.

It can take 500 years to generate an inch of soil yet just a few generations to destroy. When you drench soil with proprietary synthetic agrochemicals as part of a model of chemical-dependent farming, you harm essential micro-organisms and end up feeding soil a limited doughnut diet of toxic inputs.

Armed with their multi-billion-dollar money-spinning synthetic biocides, this is what the agrochemical companies have been doing for decades. In their arrogance, these companies claim to have knowledge that they do not possess and then attempt to get the public and co-opted agencies and politicians to bow before the altar of corporate ‘science’ and its bought-and-paid-for scientific priesthood.

The damaging impacts of their products on health and the environment have been widely reported for decades, starting with Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking 1962 book Silent Spring.

These latest studies underscore the need to shift towards organic farming and agroecology and invest in indigenous models of agriculture – as has been consistently advocated by various high-level international agencies, not least the United Nations, and numerous official reports.

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Bill Johnson
Bill Johnson

Conducted by the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and the University of Maryland
So, are they any more believable than the WHO or CDC or Climate Change loonies? Why should I believe this article is true, not slanted etc?
Just asking, you know, fool me once……

Mr T
Mr T

If you do not believe peer reviewed papers (because the studies referred to in the article were actually published in peer reviewed scientific journals – and there have been hundreds published over the years on the impacts of these toxic chemicals), then that is up to you. Beginning with Rachel Carson’s 1962 book (mentioned in the above article), the evidence has been mounting decade on decade. It is all out there. You just need to research it for yourself. And you also need to look into how these corporations use corrupt tactics to ensure their toxic chemicals remain in use. Think big tobacco. Think agrochem corporations. Again, all the info is there if you care to seek it out. Your stance is what these corporations want the public to do – they deliberately sow doubt in people’s minds so they sit on the fence while people continue to be poisoned and soils continue to degrade. Or maybe you are here to try to sow doubt. Either way, the science is in and the jury is in. Look no further than the ongoing trials in the US coming out in favour of plaintifs and against these toxic corporations.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Rachel Carson’s book had not a shred of science backing it up.
Your faith in “peer review” as some magic process of “sciencitude” that confers absolute truth upon papers submitted to journals, indicates that you’ve never been involved in the peer review process.
Your statement that “the science is in and the jury is in” indicates that you are either
(a) Anthony Fauci;
(b) Al Gore;
(c) a putz who has no idea what science is; or
(d) any of the above.

Stucky

You are either

(a) a fucken moran
(b) a fucken moran
(c) a fucken moran; or
(d) any of the above.

Austrian Peter

Well said Mr T and well put, thank you. I try to use verifiable sources but do get caught out now and then – it’s a jungle of data – wood and trees come to mind.

Ghost

I went looking for a dumbfounded look to plop here.

All I could find was RiNS baby picture.

comment image

Mygirl....maybe

Around here most of the fields are rapidly being covered in shit box subdivisions. Forget soil damage, soon the only soil will be in containers and people will wonder why they have no food.

RiNS

Okay Ghost you had to go and make me laugh…
Some some circle that’d be a low blow but I was never that good lookin’

Steve
Steve

The answers to most problems are rather simple. Look to mother nature for answers and how she does things. After all she’s been mighty successful for a couple of billion years.
The avarice and hubris of man with a very short window in viewing problems will be our ultimate downfall.
Yeah, you can increase food production for 100 years but will this method work for a thousand? Hell no..
Follow and understand mother nature and we’ll be able to farm successfully for thousands of years.

Austrian Peter

But will we be able to feed 7.8 billion? Oh I forgot – revise that to 1/2 billion.

Anonymous
Anonymous

7.8 billion what? Most of those numbers aren’t actually people.

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

This required a study? That if you soak soil in poison it may affect it?

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Because the retards run the show.

Harrington Richardson: Deplorable Ninja Grifter
Harrington Richardson: Deplorable Ninja Grifter

Perhaps “they” would make good natural fertilizer? Feed them to the hogs and spray them out as slurry.
When I was a kid there were a lot of farm kids in my classes. I remember it was still the preferred method to let a field lay fallow every third year. The farms were all divided into thirds and every year one of the fields would be planted in clover and not used. When this practice was ended around here in the 70’s, it was also the end of the huge numbers of Pheasants, Hungarian Partridge, and literally clouds of Quail. I imagine any kids today would call me a liar telling them about kicking up coveys of dozens to several hundred Quail.

Austrian Peter

I remember it well – when I was running my small holding in SW England 70s/80s I had 4 plots of 10m square each. One plot was always allowed to fallow each year. Wonderful produce with no chemicals just nature’s way. For example I always planted rows of onions between my rows of carrots – no fly – all healthy.

TN Patriot
TN Patriot

My Sr year of HS, 4 of us hunted quail every day of the season, except 3. We never failed to find 1/2 dozen coveys of 10-20 birds. My BIL still lives in the little town and told me that you would be lucky to find 1/2 dozen coveys in the whole county. We never saw any deer and now they are overrunning the place.

ILuvCO2
ILuvCO2

Tards

gmpatriot
gmpatriot

Last year a NC supplier of organic compost got hammered when the compost they provided KILLED numerous gardens. The cause was “persistent” herbicides” from raw materials used in their blend. In many cases these herbicides have a half life of several years and can cause issues in VERY low PPM. Our farm has stopped outsourcing manure due to similar issues. The Horse owner didnt use them, but the hay that he fed the horse was suspect. Now only our chickens provide needed compost.

Harrington Richardson: Deplorable Ninja Grifter
Harrington Richardson: Deplorable Ninja Grifter

Remember when the Clintoons were showing their greenie bona fides and had the White House grounds fertilized with processed sewage?
THEN, recall Big Mike was going to have a vegetable garden at the White House? She planted it but someone reminded them that the soil was so full of contaminants that any produce would be considered toxic. The Symbolism over Substance champion Obongos even had chefs come to the White House and make a big deal about picking vegetables from Mike’s garden and “prepare them” in the White House kitchen. These frauds would pick stuff from the garden, throw it out behind closed doors and prepare things with uncontaminated stuff from the grocery store. They would still try to pretend it was the stuff Big Mike grew. A whole lot of exposed pathologies right there!

art simpson
art simpson

Add the chemicals and aluminum from atmospheric spraying (chemtrails) together and you have Habakkuk 3:17. “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:”

This is the end of global food production.

brian
brian

Growing up on a farm in the N Battleford area in Saskatchewan I remember the soil as being black and heavy. My aunt & uncle who owned the farm would say that the soil would grow everything with little effort, especially weeds too.

They farmed a couple sections, rotating crops and summer fallowing were the norm. Taking the manure from the barns in the spring and spreading it over the fields. Little to no chemical fertilizers were used. Today the eldest daughter farms the land. No till and heavy chemical usage. They don’t have a garden and raise zero animals, buying all their groceries at costco in Battleford. The only animals are the show piece horses that nobody ever rides, like garden gnomes.

The soil is grey today and crusty, turns to powder if you squeeze it in your hands. The small ditches bordering the fields are choked with canola (rape seed plants), so too are the rail lines running thru the countryside. Because its all roundup resistant it can’t be sprayed out. Commercial farming… is destroying not only the soils, producing less nutritious foods, turning crops into invasive weed and gutting the culture of what it was to being a farmer.

What is scum suck’n gates buying up farmland… Control the food – control the people.

Harrington Richardson: Deplorable Ninja Grifter
Harrington Richardson: Deplorable Ninja Grifter

In the Westerns, the sod busters always find a Shane to deal with the evil cattle baron. Think Ammon Bundy vs Pencil Neck Bill the Baron.

Austrian Peter

That is really sad. I remember listening to a sci-fi play on the radio in my youth: ‘Death of Grass’ – it always worried me. When the grass goes we go.

Soup

No doubt the author raises good points, but fails to mention there is a remedy….regenerative agriculture, and small scale, local organic/natural growing systems. Many studies have shown soil can actually be rebuilt in just a matter of a few years. For instance, one study from the U. of Illinois showed earthworms can add 1/3 inch of new soil a year to pastures, if managed properly.

Practices must be changed. How many times have you driven past a farm that has been completely disked? Most stupid farming practice ever. Keeping thousands of cattle on a feedlot walking in their shit and piss? And you eat that shit?

Decentralization is the key. Fuck the spirit of Earl Butts.

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