A Heinous yet Generally Accepted Social, Economic, and Environmental Crime
As I write, I hear the roar of crop dusters in our area. It amazes me how anybody can even conceive the notion that people have the right to spray their properties from a plane with toxic chemicals, knowing full well that some of them will carry into their neighbors’ properties. It is an unconscionable act, and I am perplexed that there are not great cries of outrage and protest – petitions, marches and all. Indeed, one wonders how this madness could ever have been permitted. The likely reasons for the lack of opposition to this crime are ignorance and having so many other apparently bigger fish to fry. How many people living in cities actually get to see or experience firsthand the effects of this poisonous practice? It is out of sight, out of mind. Many do not know or care about what they are eating and supporting.
And, to be sure, we have many forms of madness, several even worse, like abortion and vaccinations, but, truly, crop dusting (or crop spraying) is another abomination to all life.
Many are the stories I have heard of people having damage to their gardens, trees, and general greenery because of aerial spraying near them. And how many are those affected in their health? Many of these stories have come without solicitation or direct discussion of the specific subject.
What is accepted as a necessity or productive agricultural practice ought to be condemned as a crime, and its perpetrators fined and jailed. How dare they impose their poisons on those who not only do not want or need them, but who are harmed by them! Furthermore, nobody needs them.
Crop spraying or dusting occurs often near our community. At one particular time, a potato crop was being sprayed for insects, and the prevailing winds brought the visible mist of chemical upon us. Our eyes teared, our noses and throats reacted, and we were helpless to do anything about it. What are we supposed to do, keep greenhouses for our gardens and have gas masks and protective clothing at the ready? What shall we do for our children? Must we run for our houses, shut off air conditioners and fans and remain locked up just because the perpetrator seeks to benefit himself financially, the neighbors be damned? What is this?
At the time this particular spraying occurred, I tried to call whatever authorities I could think of that were available. I got nowhere. A representative for a government institution (I don’t remember which) came out and rather tactfully (he seemed to be coached for such cases) defended the practice of aerial spraying of pesticides as though I was protesting people wearing clothing in public. “What’s the big deal?” was the essence of his attitude, though well masked. To him, I was a fretting crackpot.
We have people protesting the use of animal fur. We have the SPCA, Greenpeace, and other organizations taking up the cause of the environment, animal abuse, and other various issues. How few there are who recognize the vile, wholesale slaughter of people, animals, greenery, insects and important microcosms necessary for health and well being by aerial and ground crop spraying with synthetic pesticides! I say that those responsible for that kind of crop spraying are guilty of unpremeditated murder. Even ground, never mind aerial, crop spraying should be counted an indictable offense. It should be unheard of. Nobody should have to put up with it any more than they should have to put up with arsonists, vandals and stalkers.
No wonder we have the high incidence of mental, physical and emotional diseases. In many and diverse ways, we are destroying ourselves, and few care to pay any mind. People today are the unquestioning populace of Logan’s Run, deceived and conditioned to believe the biggest lies and perishing in the process.
– Victor Hafichuk (July 14, 2008)