The Rural Voice, 1983-03, Page 33PUT PESTICIDES
IN PERSPECTIVE
People should put the question of
agricultural pesticides in perspective.
Especially those who smoke, drink
coffee, have a fondness for salt, or use
aspirin and baking soda.
So says Freeman McEwan, chairman
of the environmental biology depart-
ment at the University of Guelph, in an
article published in the most recent
newsletter of the Ontario Agricultural
College Alumni Association.
Canadians have an unwarranted fear
of pesticides, says McEwan, who will
become the new dean of OAC as of
July 1: "Their foods contain very little
pesticides residues, and any residues
that are there are insignificant in terms
of any health hazard that we know to
exist."
On the other hand, some of these
pesticides, all exhaustively tested be-
fore being placed on the market, are
less poisonous or toxic than items in
everyday use. For instance, caffeine. It
is found in coffee, chocolate and many
soft drinks, and has a toxicity rating
equal to the banned pesticide DDT, and
is three times as toxic as 2,4-D.
McEwan says almost any substance
is toxic if enough of it is injected, even
water.
Clinical toxicity is determined by
experiments on animals; called the
LD -50 test, short for "lethal dose - 50
per cent." Test animals are force-fed by
stomach tube doses great enough to
kill half the animals in a test group.
This shows the number of milligrams
per kilogram of body weight for a
substance to produce a 50 per cent
death rate.
The same test indicates many of
Canada's most common pesticides are
safer than familiar household products.
"Each day many of us consume
five per cent of an LD -50 of caffeine.
five to 10 per cent of an LD -50 of
nicotine and a wide variety of other
things that are toxic," says McEwan.
So some sense of perspective is
needed when it comes to pesticides.
They are essential and can increase
farm crop yield by up to 50 per cent, he
says: "Agriculture needs them and so
does the general public."
"Somehow, if we are to continue to
have the pesticides that are essential
tools for modern agriculture, we must
get across to the general public how
essential these are and how they contri-
bute to the wide variety of high quality
foods that are purchased so economi-
cally in Canada."
Gregor Campbell
FARM ADVICE
TRACTOR MANAGEMENT
The following books may be available at
your local OMAF office:
(1) "101 ways to get a better deal
buying a used tractor"
(2) "Understanding the modern farm
tractor"
(3) "The simple way to compare farm
tractors"
Anyone seriously interested in effective
equipment management will want to
subscribe to the "Official Guide to
Tractors and Farm Equipment" which
lists updated information on such
things as h.p. and hour per gallon for
all farm machinery. The cost is $38.
(American) for two editions a year. If a
group of neighbours went together to
buy one subscription, this could reduce
the price. The publisher is: National
Farm & Power Equipment Dealers' As-
sociation, 10877 Watson Road. St.
Louis. Mo. 63127.
WHERE ARE MARKETS HEADED?
You can hear the latest quotes, strategies, opinions and interviews
from marketwatchers across North America.
Subscribe to Ag -Alert, a hotline service established by Agricultural
Reporter John DePutter.
WHAT EMERGENCIES ARE LOOMING?
You can monitor disease outbreaks in livestock, white mould in beans,
world weather problems, U.S. and Canadian policy changes that affect
farmers.
Subscribers to Ag -Alert get a secret hotline number which they can
phone 24 hours a day. We have 10 in -coming lines to eliminate busy
signals.
AG -ALERT
Making the
Ago -world
smaller
Ag -Alert provides daily U.S. and Canadian market
quotes for corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs. Plus
interviews with top farmers, analysts and market -
watchers. For $195 dollars per year, and the time it
takes to listen to a 6 minute recording, you can stay
informed. Long distance callers pay their own toll
charges. In addition to the hotline, subscribers get a
monthly newsletter. Ag -Alert subscribers have the
information they need to make profitable management
decisions.
tit l*.( ItIRF; NOV‘. Fll.l. Iti THIS FORM.
Name - ---- -
Address
Postal Code
Telephone
County
I grow Cash Crops
Livestock
My cheque for $195 for a one year subscription to Ag -Alert is enclosed. I agree to keep
the telephone hotline number confidential.
Signature:
Please make cheque paable to Ag-Alerl.
Tear across dotted line and mail to the following address: 2-175 Wortley Road, London,
Ontario N6C 3P6. For more information, phone 433-0133.
THF RURAL VOICE MARCH 1983 PG 33