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Banned Herbicides & Pesticides
"Franz Heymann" wrote in message ...
"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in message ... On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 15:39 +0100 (BST), Steve Harris wrote: In article , (Alan Gould) wrote: A few fag ends infused in water overnight would make a very effective insecticide, but it caused a lot of health and safety problems. But surely this insecticide is pretty organic? :-) Please dismiss the word "organic" from your vocabulary as regards both gardening (and farming) and chemical identity. Technically speaking, any chemical compound that contains at least one carbon atom is "organic". The category embraces everything from carbon dioxide and sugar (both lethal in large enough doses) to virulent poisons of which small doses can kill you in a few seconds. Nicotine, the active insecticidal compound found in tobacco, has a very high level of toxicity for mammals. You are a mammal. It is much less safe for you than the usual non-organic (sensu confusu) insecticides. The fact that it is derived directly from a natural source in no way makes a solution of cigarette butts a safe insecticide. To replace "organic" in reference to horticulture goings on, use the phrase "free of petrochemical derivatives not occurring in nature" and you will be more accurate and focussed in your objections -- which, I might add, I am in reasonable agreement with. At last someone has said it straight out in this ng. Folk should realise that it is quite silly to use the term "organic" versus "inorganic" in the contexts in which they are commonly used in agri- and horticulture. The more sensible dichotomy is between *beneficient* and *deleterious* substances. Both "organic" and "inorganic" substances in use in horticulture have examples in both camps. If a chemical does a lot of good and a minimum of harm, I will gladly use it, whether it is correctly or incorrectly classified as "organic" or "inorganic". Well, that's perfectly sensible. But if you have a problem with the way the various words are used and abused, the Soil Association is a rich source of information. I'm not a member, but I know the Association has for decades been working on all the problems this thread has been nibbling at, and has answers to most of them. It isn't silly to use "organic": it just happens to be the nearest we can get to a single word covering a particular system. The word has a large number of meanings (nearly 20, I think: see Oxford Dictionary if necessary) many of which are completely unrelated; this meaning (which is nothing to do with organic chemistry) is as good as any of the others. We may safely ignore anybody who thinks it should have only one meaning: he hasn't done his homework, and shall go to the bottom of the class. Mike. |
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