Pacific Spirit Marine Institute

Is NAFTA Growing a Farming Traffic Jam?

Thursday, June 28, 2007

The danger of pesticides is a three-way merge onto a dangerous roundabout.

While Canadians are worried about the dangers coming their way from the US, Americans are worried about the dangerous pesticides being imported from Canada. Meanwhile the US exports banned or unregistered pesticides to Mexico.

25 % of all fresh and frozen produce in the US is imported, 50% of which is imported from Mexico. Canada is the second largest market for US agricultural exports and US exporters are the dominant suppliers of produce exporters to Canada.

In March of this year The US EPA and the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency gave the first joint approval of a NAFTA ‘harmonized label for pesticide.

The first product called Avadex in Canada, and Far-Go in the US is an herbicide that “Warning labels state that it should not be applied directly to water, to areas where surface water is present, or to intertidal areas below the mean high water mark.” “The use of this chemical in areas where soils are permeable, particularly where the water table is shallow, may result in ground water contamination.” “Have a high potential for runoff into surface water where there are poorly draining or wet soils with slopes toward adjacent surface waters, frequently flooded areas, areas over-laying extremely shallow ground water, areas with in-field canals or ditches that drain to surface water, areas not separated from adjacent surface waters with vegetated filter strips, and areas over-laying tile drainage systems that drain surface water.”

Is there any type of land being farmed that doesn’t fall under the above classification?

It defies logic that the US and Canada, known for ‘feeding the world’, now depends on importing food from the world to be feed?

Importing and exporting, and shipping and receiving. Fast tracking, highway building, and labeling. NAFTA, SPP, NAF, NASCO, CTCS and the rest of the alphabet look strangely like a perpetual motion profit machine. A machine engineered by a basket full of corporations that walk hand-in-hand into the sunset with our good will, our health and our money in their pockets.

Tomorrow we lighten up!

Labels: Canada, Mexico, NAFTA, NASCO, North American Union, SPP, Supercorridor, Superhighway, USA