Reducing Pesticide Use

Was just reading an article in the National Post on farming and pesticide use. It was by the director of the International Conservation Program for the World Wildlife Fund Canada, and they focus on, among other things, reducing the use of pesticides. When I started reading, I was worried that the article would be the usual left wing rant against pesticides, without proposing an alternative. I think it is a given that most farmers would want to reduce pesticide use, after all it is expensive and is basically poison on food we eat. Who would want that? Very low levels of arsenic will not kill you, but no one is exactly lining up to test the theory.

However, the left never takes the time to examine the end results of their wacky schemes.

If we eliminated use of pesticides, how would we maintain our level of food production? Prices would skyrocket and people would go hungry. And the one thing that does allow farmers to reduce pesticide use but maintain production, genetically modified foods (GM), the left is even more against.

So I was pleasantly surprised when Ms. Julia Langer talked about organic foods, pest resistant plants, crop rotation, disruption of pest reproduction (I guess that is like when your young children burst in the bedroom when you are making love to your wife), anti-pest organisms and other types of ideas. I am not sure if pest resistance plants refers to GM modified, maybe Ms. Langer recognizes the value of GM foods, but cannot say the name for the howls from the left wing groups.

So, everything was going well and I was pleasantly surprised. Of course, there is one other problem with all lefty arguments. If they ever, by chance, make a logical, well reasoned argument, the second law comes into effect. Sure enough, I was not disappointed when Ms. Langer, in the last third of her article, asked for, guess what? Drum roll please: Tax payer money. Never was there a scheme from the left that did not require more of my tax dollars. But there is good news. It would require no more than the average payment the Europeans give their farmers. Yippee! The cloud has a silver lining. Any idea that cannot pay for itself perhaps is not such a good idea after all.

MB