Commercial Herbicide Ruining UK Vegetable Gardens
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07. 2.08
Here is an apt demonstration of why strictly controlled organic food production methods pose lower risks to human health. It is a frightful sounding tale of deformed vegetables in domestic gardens where "allotment" owners used commercially produced (non-organic) manure to supplement their soil.
Gardeners have been warned not to eat home-grown vegetables contaminated by a powerful new herbicide that is destroying gardens and allotments across the UK.The chain of events in the UK was roughly as follows
UK farmers used a popular, commercially approved herbicide to suppress broad leaf weeds from grassland.
The residues of the herbicide were absorbed into vascular tissue of grasses, where bio-degradation is slow compared to in decaying weeds and soil.
Cut-grass hay containing the residual herbicide was turned into silage, and fed to cows or horses.
The herbicide residues apparently did not break down in ruminant digestive tracts.
Cow or horse manure (still) containing the herbicide residues was sold to domestic gardeners. (Commercial vegetable growers are not mentioned as having been specifically impacted; but it is possible.)
Residual herbicide, brought in with the manure and spread in vegetable gardens or "allotments" caused deformed and/or decrepit vegetables.
Dow AgroSciences, which manufactures aminopyralid [a.k.a. Milestone in the US and Forefront or Pharaoh in the UK], has posted advice to allotment holders and gardeners on its website [US version here has no mention of the issue; but UK version here does]...The Dow website says: 'As a general rule, we suggest damaged produce (however this is caused) should not be consumed.' Those who have already used contaminated manure are advised not to replant on the affected soil for at least a year.
Via::The Guardian, Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertilizer Image credit::Garden Web, Manure Bag Label, organic variety.
You can't believe in sh** anymore. What is the world coming to?
What rotten luck for the vegetible growers. They should have some sort of recourse against the people that perpitrated this on them, right up to the producers of the product that claimed to be fertilizer.
I have in the past just picked up folks manuer and used it on the garden. That will start as of this year.
Our allotment site is one of those hit and we have devoted two pages of our website to gathering information.
Just to correct one point at least one commercially used product suspected of causing damage was labeled organic.
Most damage is resulting from use of farmyard/stable manure - at least one source was from an organic farm. The word organic is not a safety blanket. The use of the herbicide was probably high up the chain in the production of silage or bedding.
Use this link to read more:
http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Contaminated_Manure.ikml
Are there any reports of similar problems in the US? I live in Tennessee. My neighbor and I both are growing tomatoes in backyard gardens, and she has a few that are producing deformed fruit. Mine, so far, are all okay. She has not used either manure or chemicals on her garden or yard, but she did buy tomato sets rather than starting from seed (mine are all from seed). She's not growing any uncommon varieties; the tomatoes should be round, but are oddly elongated. We were wondering if the tomato sets could have been contaminated by the grower, perhaps with tainted compost or manure.
==== author's response follows ===
deformed vegetables can have other causes in the way of plant disease.