Letter: Facts contradict accusations against Sakonnet farmers

Posted 12/14/18

To the editor:

This concerns Mimi Karlsson's letter to the editor of Nov. 15 about legally applied agricultural chemicals. In making her sweeping, overly dramatic yet unfounded claims about …

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Letter: Facts contradict accusations against Sakonnet farmers

Posted

To the editor:

This concerns Mimi Karlsson's letter to the editor of Nov. 15 about legally applied agricultural chemicals. In making her sweeping, overly dramatic yet unfounded claims about farmers singlehandedly ruining the local environment with no evidence to back them up, as Mrs. Karlsson has repeatedly done, she is giving us a great example of the "scientific ignorance" of which she accuses farmers of committing.

Let's remember that farmers were originally accused by Mrs. Karlsson of using the herbicide Round-Up (glyphosate) on potatoes, which is just plainly ignorant, as glyphosate is never used on potatoes by anyone, anywhere. In addition, not apologizing for the incorrect accusation is just plain rude. Caring about the environment is important, and farmers do, by carefully applying minimal amounts of safe, legal agricultural chemicals only when absolutely necessary, and investing time and money while receiving no profit, to plant cover crops in order to eliminate erosion and runoff.

Mrs. Karlsson's tactic of spreading "fake news" about the environment is not part of any solution. The fact is, she is complaining about legal pesticides which are registered by her previous employer, the EPA. Perhaps a letter to the EPA containing some "scientific" specifics would be a more productive way to express her feelings about the banning of any chemicals she decides to deem necessary. We do use one of the products described in the Nov. 15 letter from RI DEM to dry our potato vines, at a rate considerably less than the maximum allowed by law. If Mrs. Karlsson needs to know more than this, perhaps she should first briefly and politely explain why, using some relevant facts.

We are told by Mrs. Karlsson that "on Long Island, they formed Farm Bureau and worked ... to ban Temik ... I don't believe anything of the kind happened in the East Bay." Well, the RI Farm Bureau was established in 1953 and Temik was banned in RI in 1984.

Readers are also impolitely informed that "for the most part the Sakonnet region is college educated" and that "we can't afford the scientifically ignorant, authority averse, libertarian mentality anymore or our paradise will be poisoned forever." Unfortunately, it seems a college education does not prevent Mrs. Karlsson from embarrassing herself by repeatedly making uninformed public accusations towards farmers which were shown to be so by the Nov. 15 letter from the chief of the RI DEM published directly below her own. The scientists at the EPA approve the use of pesticides. The RI DEM is quite literally "the authority" on pesticides, and they register, control, license and certify commercial applicators of, and restrict pesticides if necessary. The "libertarian mentality" which is ignoring science and authority belongs to Mrs. Karlsson, not farmers who obey the law by recording quantities and locations of any pesticides used and submitting the records to the DEM.

It was said that we "stopped short of telling (our) community what chemicals (we) are using" and that "the farm herbicide Atrazine has been found in a well near a corn field on West Main Road". Here, it seems that Mrs. Karlsson is "stopping short" on sharing the details of a possibly alarming situation with the community and relevant authorities. This is unfortunate, as the alleged contamination of a single well is her only attempt at providing any "scientific" evidence that it is solely farmers who are to blame for all of her alarmist claims. We are not informed as to exactly who owned the well, what all possible sources may have been, why it may have happened, where exactly the well is, when the Atrazine contamination was found, or how to insure it doesn't happen again.

Was RI DEM informed, and if not, why not? Fortunately, people who are concerned can consult the internet, specifically Wikipedia, which tells us: "Atrazine is used to prevent pre- and postemergence broadleaf weeds in crops such as maize (corn) and sugarcane and on turf, such as golf courses and residential lawns." and "(EPA) monitoring of atrazine levels in community water systems in 31 high-use states found levels exceeded levels of concern for infant exposure during at least one year between 1993 and 2001 in 34 of 3,670 community water systems using surface water, and in none of 14,500 community water systems using groundwater." So now we know that testing for atrazine is done, has shown zero in the groundwater of 14,500 communities, and farms in general aren't the only possible source of any unfortunate contamination of surface waters. We are also informed by RI DEM that citizens are free to inquire as to the states of any local waters.

We are asked "have you tested your groundwater?" We would like to ask Mrs. Karlsson if she has tested hers, or anyone else's. If not, why is she writing these letters in the first place? The readers are told to "wake up" and "insist" that "farmers work with the state",  when farmers already do!

We are told there is a "hidden problem", that problem being "the groundwater table in the Sakonnet region (is) a sewage and chemical soup only occasionally diluted with rain and melting snow". In addition, we are told "Watson (Reservoir) is so heavily contaminated ..."

If the groundwater was "a sewage and chemical soup", we would be informed by the authorities to avoid it. Watson Reservoir is tested by RI DEM, and there is no mention of it being "heavily contaminated", much less any evidence that any possible agricultural runoff is the sole reason the water must be treated. Watson has an issue with excessive amounts of Total Organic Carbon, which is created by decaying algae. Excessive amounts of algae are created by excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous in surface water. Phosphorus and nitrogen can get into surface water through stormwater runoff, pet waste left on the ground, wild animal waste, agricultural, golf course and lawn fertilizers, septic systems, animal feed lots, manure, and landfills. The simple claim that Watson is the sole source of non-existent "heavy contamination" is completely unscientific, as the streams feeding it are themselves compromised, and the water is pumped over to Aquidneck Island, into another open reservoir. Perhaps if there were some sort of tests proving heavy contamination of Watson Reservoir, the argument would have some sort of merit.

Another claim is made that RI DEM "informed (Mrs. Karlsson) that both suppliers and farmers in the Sakonnet region scrupulously adhere to a 500-pound limit on storing pesticides so as to avoid monitoring, testing, and "Right to Know". Any "500-pound limit" has nothing to do with monitoring or testing, which is done by the RI DEM for all farm pesticide applicators and applications, and is a fact that could have easily been confirmed before making unfounded accusations. Also, 500 pounds of most pesticides is enough to treat 1000-5000 acres or more, and there are no farms of anywhere near that size in this area, hence farmers not having "large" amounts of pesticides on hand.

Sadly for the accuser but fortunately for the rest of us, there is no state-endorsed, farmer run conspiracy to poison the environment at hand. While concern for the environment is admirable, we would like to encourage Mrs. Karlsson to direct her letters towards the proper targets, and perhaps include more relevant facts in the future.

Jason Peckham

(Son of owner of Ferolbink Farms)

Tiverton

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