How Do We Live With the Use of
Chemicals to Feed the World?
Symposium at the 2005
Annual Meeting of the AAAS
“Can We Feed the World
Without Poisoning the Earth?”
February 19, 2005
Washington, D.
C.
Charles M.
Benbrook Ph.
D.
Sandpoint, Idaho
Posted at...
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How Do We Live With the Use of
Chemicals to Feed the World?
Symposium at the 2005
Annual Meeting of the AAAS
“Can We Feed the World
Without Poisoning the Earth?”
February 19, 2005
Washington, D.
C.
Charles M.
Benbrook Ph.
D.
Sandpoint, Idaho
Posted at http://www.
biotech-info.
net/AAAS_2005.
htm
“To Poison”
The exposure of an organism to a substance
that kills or weakens the organism, or
otherwise undermines its fitness.
The basic question – to what degree are
agricultural pesticides poisoning the earth?
Poisoning Whom?
Vulnerable Organisms
• Non-crop vegetation in fields
• Birds
• Small aquatic invertebrates
• Earthworms, bees, and other beneficial
insects
• Fish in some ecosystems
• Those at the top of food chains, e.
g.
people
Vulnerable Places
Farm fields and surrounding areas – about 11 percent of
the globe’s land area
Surface waters and estuaries near intensively farmed
regions
Forests and rangelands where pesticides are routinely
applied – a small share of the total
Inside
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