North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mauch1@aol.com]

An image that searred itself into my brain is one I experienced

as I drove down a road in Lancaster county.  An Amish

man, driving his team of horses with the man standing on

a platform spraying something on his field* with him not

wearing any protective gear, and his dog (I assume his) racing

along side and sometimes behind directly in the spray.

 

*-Alright - it 'could' have been organic, but I suspect

not, and 'organic' is not equivalent to 'harmless'.

 

>Obviously one can't paint an entire group of people
with a single stroke, but my experience has been that
not only do the Amish often eagerly embrace chemical
agriculture, they are remarkably cavalier about the
dangers posed by the compounds involved. A coworker of
mine said the Amish near his place never wore any kind
of protective gear when spraying, not even gloves or
goggles. An Amish man my grandfather knew was still
using lead arsenate from a stash of the stuff in his
barn in the early 1990s. Another Amish fellow I spoke
to was almost creepy in his enthusiasm for
nicotine-based insecticides.

 

 

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40° 5' N 75° 51'W
~650 ft elevation

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