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
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free.