I was thinking about doing a post on the equinox, about how some signal has been received by the trees in the last several days re the amount of leaves that are being shed or about the slow creep to the longest night that is beginning, but I got sidetracked.
I was checking my stats today and saw I had (the total is now) 55 referrals from www.agairupdate.com. Agairupdate is a website and on-line newsletter for crop dusters. It took me a little while to find the link he posted to my blog. But find it I did...This is the mentality and mindset aerial applicators face as urbanites move to the country...as if I'm leading the pitchfork armed mob storming the pilot in his plane.
He seems to take issue with my opinion concerning poisons in the environment. Never mind that my post only had one little sentence at the very end about the local crop duster. Never mind that my post was not about 'aerial applications' or how conscientious (or not) the people who do it are. Never mind that I did not lambaste agribusiness specifically or farmers in general. Never mind that he doesn't know anything about me. Never mind that the bit about the crop duster was about the irony in my life and not about the crop duster, who was btw just doing his job.
The ever supportive partner, when I showed him the rudely worded link, said, “He's right.”
“No, he is not right!” I replied indignantly.
I'm not some urbanite getting away from it all on my little ranchette on the weekends or complaining about the noise of the plane and the smell of whatever chemical from my gated community big city suburb recently carved out of ranch or farmland. Yes, I would prefer if the farmers engaged in a more sustainable form of agriculture and stopped pumping chemicals into the air and ground. Yes, I think that people and other living things would be better off without all the poison that is used everyday without thought. But if I was going to engage in any kind of protest I would start with my neighbors and try to get them to reduce the amount of household and garden toxins they use.
I guess he needed a bogeyman and thought I fit the bill. Apparently he's not aware of all the country people (as opposed to us transplanted urbanites) who think aerial application is at the root of a lot of serious illness in their families.
In the meantime, I will just take care of my little half acre making it the healthiest ecosystem I can without poisons.
So, do you think I overreacted?
ReplyDeleteNo, not one bit. The phrase "how rude" comes to mind as well as "and why was he commenting to you?"
ReplyDeleteI didn't find any part of your posting to be directed purposely at him....rant on darling girl and pssssssst like my own hubby, they can't help the testosterone poisoning either...tee hee.
I think you are right on Ellen! You may not have intended to pick a fight, but you certainly touched a raw nerve. Perhaps there is a good reason for that. I grew up in a farming community. I don't know what was in the chemical fertilizers, but I know that my eyes burned so badly when it was being used around me I could not see for the tears. Regular manure was not a problem.
ReplyDeleteYou go girl! Gee, Ellen, I would be indignant too if I realized they were using me as an 'example'.
ReplyDeleteSome people consider healthy farms and food to be a civil rights issue.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read your original post or the pesticidal spraying persons post.
But from how you describe it it sounds like he is just asking for pitchforks to be raised up in rebellion against him and his ways.
He sounds more prone to act on emotions than with intelligence.
If I were you and I had a pen as an attack dog I might be inclined to write "sick em!"
ellen - we have the right to offer perspective on the choices others make that affect our health. pesticides being one of the more pernicious ways in which toxins invade the environment . . . of which we are a part. there are however, (as you have found out) dilemma's galore around sharing those opinions one of which is that there are emotional attachments carried by people who wish to maintain the status quo. i say it's good to swim upstream every so often! steven
ReplyDeleteWay to go Ellen!
ReplyDeleteMy first thought is what a plonker(!) but thats not very constructive. We ran an organic fruit and veg shop for 10 years and everything I grow is grown in homemade compost or horse manure!
Can I sic my friend Bev on him? She's the one who blames her breast cancer on the pesticides her dad used on his farm. She's pretty militant & can apparently can handle a pitchfork!
ReplyDeleteNo, you didn't.
ReplyDeleteThis world would be a lot healthier if crop dusting were curbed. I am still 100% behind you.
You have every right to your own opinion, Ellen, and I think that he is the one who overreacted! I think that the very idea of spraying chemicals into the air that we breathe is appalling and should be against the law.
ReplyDeleteOuch. I had a similar situation when I wrote something about the Turkish rescuers who went to Haiti, and with insufficient online information, I speculated, openly saying I could be wrong. That and the other content of the post, which was based on factual personal information, really riled a couple of visitors, who happened to have googled "Haiti Turkish rescuers" and my blog post came up on the first page. Yikes. It happens.
ReplyDeleteNo, you did not...I think he did! Way to go.
ReplyDelete