Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

I don’t know if this has been mentioned.  A couple of years ago the follwoing 
story hit the news-lines in the UK.  Grass land had been sprayed with the 
herbicide aminopyralid, the grass was cut and made into silage for feeding 
cows, the cow manure was composted and sold to organic gardeners and home 
gardeners all over the UK.  When the vegetables grown with this compost 
turned out deformed and crippled, it was found that the herbicide had passed 
from grass to silage to cow to manure to compost to vegetables.  Growers and 
gardeners were advised not to eat their vegetables.  This shows well that 
agrochemicals don’t break down to disappear into nothingness.  Everything we 
put into the soil will sooner or later end up in our body.  Read the full 
story at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture

Dieter



--- On Sun, 3/28/10, Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us> wrote:

> From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Poisoned hay.  Was: soil testing
> To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" 
> <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Sunday, March 28, 2010, 5:07 PM
> The folks affected were my friends
> Rachel and Eric of Waterpenny Farm 
> (Sperryville, VA). The herbicide in question goes under the
> trade name 
> of "Grazon" or "Graze-on" something like that, don't know
> the chemical 
> name. And yes, it is so inimical to plant life that it's
> able to *kill* 
> garden plants even after passing through the digestive
> system of the horse.
> 
> I too don't know how long breakdown takes. But it's
> something to be on 
> guard against. In the contemporary context, all sources of
> organic 
> matter from the outside should be judged guilty until
> proven innocent.
> 
> ~Harvey