Postby bralbovsky » Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:40 pm
Using the cigarette studies, oh, and the Exxon climate memos, oh, and Thalidomide impacts (which took 12 years, despite direct, clear and provable linkage between a chemical people took on purpose and in high dosages) as our benchmark, I am damn worried about roundup. I am especially damn worried because apart from the environmental saturation, which can't be exactly quantified until we build a computer we should all be afraid of, there's increasing use beyond the 'recommended uses. Much of the residual impact testing levels were done after the grain had been in the field for weeks after application. Rain, wind, harvesting, handling, all allegedly mitigate the amount of chemical that can remain to be consumed. However, huge swaths of the grain industry discovered that if you spray it again, just before you harvest, it stresses the sprouts and they bud more vigorously, producing higher yields. No testing has been published on the chemical levels in these forced yields.
I guess what I'm getting at is that if there's a financial incentive to alter or hide incriminating data, an industry WILL alter or hide it. Every profitable quarter is a profitable quarter. No questions asked. A sixty year old farmer will say to himself, well, I got maybe ten years left in me anyway, it'll be this or something else that kills me, so I'll take the cash. The migrants who work for him will be gone. Mike Rowe insists that safety is never first, maybe third, maybe tenth. That includes the downstream safety of the folks who end up buying it.
Until we go to a system of punitive damages based on a multiplier of their ill-gotten gain, we won't stop it. For example, if Martha Stewart made 1 million, she either pays 3 million or seven million or 12 million in damages depending on her malice aforethought. Until the damages really cut into profits and viability, graft will be just another business expense.
As far as crackpot conspiracy folks...more and more I'm finding it sensible to hear them out. Did they get the plate number they said was dumping ballot boxes into the river, not every letter, but hear them out. Sometimes they're shills or shell companies for bad guys. That will come out. But if there's nothing in it for them, if they're at risk getting the info, they deserve a hearing - they often have the goods even if the sourcing is shady.
"Before enlightenment, you chop the wood and carry the water.
After enlightenment, you chop the wood and carry the water."