North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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Interesting pair of stories.  I have used herbicides sparingly to kill 
poison ivy, and I kept the cats in for a day after I sprayed.  I think 
herbicides probably have a place.  But I am nervous about the enormous 
amounts being used these days.  In particular, one danger of "roundup 
ready" crops is that they might carry a heavy load of herbicide right 
to your table.  An ordinary crop that was contaminated with significant 
amounts of herbicide would die, and not end up in the human food supply 
- not so "roundup ready" crops.  I suspect that testing to see if the 
crop is "safe" totally misses this risk.

As to the safety of using Roundup in your yard- the story I heard was 
not that it was all that safe, but that it binds very tightly to soil, 
so it is immobilized very quickly after it is applied and is no longer 
biologically available to poison you, your pets, or even plants that 
are planted the next day.  I've never used roundup, because that didn't 
sound all that safe, and it's not very effective against poison ivy, 
which is the only plant I want to control that I can't just pull out or 
cut down.   I have friends who use it all the time, though.

Ginda


On Apr 28, 2005, at 9:39 AM, Luffman, Margie wrote:

> . . . I used some round-up to eliminate some grass. The next day I 
> found a wild rabbit near death in my yard. The rabbit died shortly 
> after I found it and I have always believed it was because the rabbit 
> ate that grass and nearby vegetation which was also sprayed. . .

> -----Original Message-----
> From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org 
> [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of kieran or donna
> Sent: April 27, 2005 10:48 PM
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [NAFEX] "Roundup" and other -cide effects
>
> . . .They say the stuff is safe, but I have never trusted it.  About
> 20 years ago we had some rabbits in two wood floored pens in an old 
> barn.
> We kept a couple or 3 does and raised several litters each per year, 
> plus a
> buck.  One day I found a mature doe and a young rabbit with her dead,
> rabbits that had been perfectly healthy the day before.  As I looked 
> for
> clues, I noted that something had splashed on the wooden floor from 
> above.
> I climbed up into the loft and found a container of Roundup had fallen 
> off a
> beam and broken when it hit the floor of the loft.  . .