Contaminated Manure

[richard p]

the article starts
"Aminopyralid has been granted provisional authorisation for use as a herbicide/weedkiller"
i assume provisional means the authorisation will be reviewed at some stage, if so the more people that that contact the pesticide directorate with reports of possible damage the more chance there is of getting it removed.

[Colin Miles]

Yes the relevant bit from that link is

"PSD has now assessed additional information from the manufacturer that confirms that using manure, which may contain residues of aminopyralid, does not have implications for human health."

Which is what I was pointing to from the New York information.

You said that the young family were considering giving up the plot. Well, obviously if they aren't sure that the food they grow is any safer than that which bought, why should they bother?

Why I am somewhat concerned is whether the newspapers can be relied on to report this properly. We are coming up to the school holidays and the silly season. If it becomes a headline story in the tabloids will potential allotment holders be deterred and will newcomers give up? I hope not, but they need lots of the encouragement and will they believe the authorities when some say that 'contaminated produce should not be eaten', despite this latest declaration?

[glallotments]

Most papers were saying that the veg shouldn't be eaten as that is what we were all being told officially. Until yesterday NO-ONE would officially say the veg was safe to eat. I have their responses to my questions to prove it. To my knowledge only one newspaper went OTT. As for the tabloids most of us contacted the broadsheet papers as we wanted a serious debate.

I doubt whether many would have even heard of aminopyralid if we hadn't managed to get publicity for the problem and I know many were visiting my website and telling me that it was the first that they had known about this - they had thought the problem was something they were doing wrong or the weather. As it is now they know what the problem is they can do something to rectify matters. I haven't had one email from anyone thinking of stopping growing their own. Some affected grow in their own gardens and don't have an allotment anyway. We all know know what to avoid in order to successfully continue to grow our own. Would you prefer that this hadn't become public knowledge and people continued to lose their crops? That is more likely to cause them to give up. Without public pressure we will not stop the misuse of this chemical so that we can feel safe to use manure again. We can eat the stuff that survives but often the herbicide just stops things growing anyway. Have you been affected by this at all Colin? From what you decribe in a previous email it seems unlikely that you have had your whole potato cro wiped out or lost an entire plytunnel of tomatoes as some of our plot holders have.

Until this entered the public domain - I doubt that the PSD would have taken it as seriously as they did. Lots of people have been bombarding them for answers - not least the press! Until this got in to the press there was no suggestion that any testing was likely to be going to be carried out. Being out there in the open meant more people contacted the relevant bodies and the degree of the problem became apparent.

The problem is that there seems to be no way of tracking those who are misusing this product to either educate or prosecute. From my website the Learning from our mistakes links from the US actually parallels what is happening here. Not only does it affect private growers but also compost makers etc etc.

Sorry if you don't approve of our campaign - but I for one will be carrying on!

[Colin Miles]

Yes - your campaign is fine. But please be very, very careful. Dealing with the press and the media in general can lead to all sorts of unintended consequences. I am glad to hear that noone is thinking of giving up their allotments, but it is not just those who have allotments, but those who might be thinking of having them that might be put off. So far so good and I hope it stays that way.

[Geoff]

Have you tried the farming press like Farmers' Weekly?

[glallotments]

Geoff:
Yes I have but nothing!

[oldherbaceous]

Dear gallotments, the Farmers Weekly probably don't want to stir things up for the farmers.

If you think about it, the amount of manure that gardeners have is just a tiny proportion of the manure that farms get. So there must have been cotaminated manure spread across fields that are growing crops. And they won't want to lose these will they.

[glallotments]

You're right - they did have an article in about a similar problem last year though - the link is from our website.
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2007/11/3 ... lurry.html

It shows that this isn't just a problem for this year.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Gallotments, i take it the affected crops will have still ended up in the supermarkets then.

[richard p]

i would have thought some farmers would be over the moon, spray the weeds in their grass in year one, let the cows eat the silage in the winter , spread the manure on grassland in year 2 and get "free" weed control...... sounds like a bargain once that gets out you wont be able to get hold of any "contaminated manure"......

[glallotments]

OH, Who knows?

[daylily]

We have got the problem too, on our site, in Chesterfield. Several gardens using the same manure source had their crops affected, we contacted the farmer, whose contractor sprayer used aminopyralid containing products. They had no idea of these implications, apparently - and I can't verify this - only new, improved labels carry this warning.

A chap spoke with someone at Dow, who said they were safe to eat, then on second conversation he said, what he had said was that he would eat them.

Not all gardens using the same manure are equally affected and damage in worst ones is also patchy. Symptoms vary with species, variety and severity.
Have got variegated buttercups and raspberries for example.

Don't suppose it matters much if you eat them or not, as mentioned, it is around in everything in small amounts, probably.

And in the big picture I don't think anybody wants to bother as herbicide ready GM crops are waiting to be marketed, guess by whom.

Not to be a cynic, but the same problem has been known for ages with similar chemicals, in the US compost making companies lost out a lot of money due to compost sales banned and the sprays are still being made.

Anyhow, one of its big marketing points in sales - can be read on Dow site - is that it needs no re-application for upto 18 months.

Good luck with your campaign, though, you are doing a good job. Let me know if you need any photos.

[glallotments]

Daylily
Yes lots of the info that you refer to can be read in full from our web page. Apparently there was also problem in the UK last year of a similar nature but the difference was that there was not much publicity. I have had people email me to say that they had the problem but assumed it was down to poor cultivation on their part. There are lots of people out their banging doors on this, this year so let's just hope that it amounts to something.

Thanks for the offer of photos - can you check the ones that we have already and let me have any that show something different. I'll add you to our victims roll call.

Web link just in case you haven't visited it

http://glallotments.co.uk/ACManure.aspx

[JOHNBISHOP]

Hi glallotments, have been reading all the info about this, although not on our allotments in the Brighton area.
What I can not understand is, if all the people who make the desions are unable to make the right one that is to "BAN IT",it would appear a lot of talk NO ACTION,sorry to go on but it does make you mad, when we all work so hard, will stop before I get to boreing!! Keep going you are doing a great job on behalf of us all.

[glallotments]

Hi John,
Must admit getting people to listen is a major task. When they actually reply to emails etc it is often not a full reply - I think they get sick of me bouncing things back with an ah - but!
Must say though I can't take all the credit from communication to my website etc we have quite a group of people rattling cages. It is also a huge concern that there are so many people out there who still don't realise that there is a problem so we still need lots of publicity. We seem to be managing quite a bit locally but nationally not much response really. I did get a letter from my MEP today which was encouraging - she is involved in REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) Directive. This has come into effect this year and has some new regs regarding registering chemicals.

Someone bet me to it and has posted an e-petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Aminopyralid/