Jim Webster writes

"Welsh Witch" wrote in message
Mr Holden told the conference at the Royal Agricultural College,
Cirencester, that he spoke to another expert who felt the same.

"Changes in farming practice are a causative factor in allergies,"
he
said.

1) The only link so far shown for the increase in allergies is an
increase in hygiene levels.

2) Of course farmers have used pesticides for centuries, usually very
toxic ones like heavy metals or tars. Today these are not allowed
because they fail safety requirements (like most of the 'organic-
approved' pesticides of the recent past).

3) Strangely I know of no farmers with allergies, and no farming
children with allergies (including farm workers).

4) Those I know with allergies come exclusively from food-fad families.
These are typically quasi-vegetarian and buy organic wherever possible.

It is extraordinary that so many people are suddenly becoming allergic or
intolerant of grain, usually in the shape of wheat but not always and only
and milk.

Lactose intolerance and Gluten intolerance are both older than spraying

Indeed so.

A number of farmers are suffering from very strange nerve anomalies some
have been awarded compensation as there's talk of it being related to
the organo-phosphates used in sheep dip etc.
I think a similar substance is used on crops as a herbicide/insecticide
but not sure!

Actually it is recommended for the use of head lice in school children and
for use on pets as well

This is so. Very effective and actually very safe.
Synthetic pyrethroids are also commonly used against insects.

If you drive into a farm supplies merchant the number of
adverts. for jabs etc for a variety of bugs beetles and toads is quite
incredible.

I've never, ever, seen an advert for toad killers.

I expect confronted with warble fly or some such its would be
hard to resist the ease with which it can be despatched with a patent
medicine!

it is exceedingly difficult to despatch warble fly with patent medicine,

Incorrect. Its impossible. You can, in a dairy herd, if you catch them
just right, pop them out as they are starting to emerge and crush them
underfoot. Needs concrete though as they are surprisingly tough.

as
it has been pretty well erradicated in the UK.

Hasn't it been eradicated completely?

Having lived through the
patent medicine era, I can assure you that it didn't respond to treatment

Not at all. Like most pre-1950 products, they didn't work at all.

I expect a few people have been reading the www.notmilk.com website and
had the newsletters...they have succeeded in turning my partner right off
milk!

anyone who believes that site is lacking in the ability to do their own
basic research

They are lacking in any brain cells at all.
Gullible in the extreme.

There have been pages in the papers about the scams of food sold to us as
organic but not, and "wild" salmon which is farm bred and sprayed with
organo-phosphates etc.

Some is just out-and-out fraud where all parties make more money
'converting' not-organic-approved produce into organic-approved.

Some is just survival. If you are a modest organic producer in africa,
spain or even wales, then you are probably living of very little money
at all. Your main crop develops a pest or disease. You pray it goes away
because if not your produce is unsaleable and you are bust. It doesn't
until it gets to the latest possible point. Its tempting to go out one
night and spray the pests off. You probably do (nobody will ever know).
Trouble is you have waited a long time, unlike the conventional farmer
who sprays at the right time, so residues are high, probably high enough
to detect. Ooops...

Surely we are lucky to be interested in gardening
which leads us on to other problems.... When in the garden planting etc
its quite disconcerting to come within the spraying range from next door
with their great machine spewing out something noxious on to their
crops and my back..

Improbable in the UK. Its quite easy to check how much drift your local
farmer has by observing how far away from the crop the weeds haven't
been killed. I've never seen them killed more than 30cm from the crop,
and even trace effects never more than a couple of ft.

I suppose one can be thankful it's not liquid manu-)

what do you think is the foundation of organic production if not liquid
manure?

Absolutely.
You could probably pay them to apply it directly to your garden.

--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.