Do you eat blueberries from the commercial market, sprayed with pesticides, or do you pay a premium for unsprayed, organic berries?
The annual commercial blueberry harvest is upon us, and a question framed in this way would prompt inquiring-minded consumers to learn what pesticides have been applied to blueberry crops to kill insects, weeds and fungal disease, and what specific health hazards accompany them. The barrage of chemicals begins in April and continues into the fall with regular spraying of fungicides, herbicides and insecticides, saturating fields for maximum yield of berries — an agribusiness commodity that in no sense is “wild.” Every year, people who live, work and play around the barrens and drive on roadways along them are sickened during that time, as the poisons inevitably drift.
If you ask growers what they are using to eradicate, for example, insect pests — and, yes, they do have to tell you — they likely will give brand names for compounds that include phosmet (Imidan), zeta-cypermethrin (Mustang Max), carbaryl (Sevin) and imidacloprid (Admire). You then can look them up on an index at BeyondPesticides.org and find that the four examples cited — all designed to attack the nervous system — fall into the following classes, respectively: organophosphates, synthetic pyrethroids, carbamates and neonicotinoids. The last of these, a group of systemic insecticides, is implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder, leading to disastrous losses of the bees on which we depend to pollinate food crops.
Also systemic, meaning it is in every cell of the plant and cannot be washed off, is cyantraniliprole (Exirel), recently added to UMaine Cooperative Extension’s blueberry pesticides list. Its EPA approval earlier this year is being challenged in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups because provisions of the Endangered Species Act were ignored in the registration process. Similar to other insecticides, this new one kills fish, bees, birds and butterflies, as well as the target pest. We must protest the use of yet another systemic pesticide in Maine.
When growers disclose the herbicides they are blanketing over the barrens to eliminate every last goldenrod, sweet fern and bunchberry, you will be able to investigate further and learn that hexazinone (Velossa, Velpar) and diuron (Parrot, Karmex) are a continuing threat to groundwater and wells in Maine — though other countries have banned them because of their persistence and mobility in soil and water and because they pose endocrine-disrupting and cancer threats. These chemicals are too toxic for widespread use on “weeds” that instead can be managed by hand-pulling and mulching or can be left alone to provide essential food sources for native bees. Herbicide spraying sets off a deadly cascade: resistant weeds requiring more applications of still more lethal chemicals. The same is true for insects, which build immunity after repeated sprayings.
Monsanto, Dow and other chemical manufacturers will insist their products are safe, having been approved by EPA. But you need only look at the label for a given pesticide to see “danger” and warnings: “Do not apply near water,” “Do not apply when bees are foraging,” “Do not allow spray to touch berries.” All cautions routinely are disregarded, and “emergency” exemptions are issued regularly by state regulators for unapproved chemicals.
Several protections we have fought for in recent years — a notification registry and a ban on aerial and airblast spraying, for example — have been denied in Augusta. Until those initiatives are back on track, the best options left to consumers are filing complaints with local and state authorities — health departments and the pesticide-control board — whenever pesticide poisoning leads to medical problems, transient or long term; passing ordinances, town by town, restricting agricultural pesticide applications; and buying only unsprayed produce.
Organic blueberries — a rich source of antioxidants, as long as they are organic — are a healthy alternative to commercial berries with dozens of toxic chemicals sprayed on them. So the question comes down to personal health and protection of bees, birds, fish and butterflies. Is that not more important than expanding the profit margins of a few blueberry barons and crop dusters?
Jody Spear is an editor and writer who lives in Harborside.