>
> "Do people really want to eat pumpkins that are so full of poison that they
> kill every cucumber beetle that dares take a bite?"


This kind of statement helps no one!
Bob, I have grown organically for some 30 years, and avoid pesticides in my
diet too.  When I ran a farm store, I refused to stock the standard
pesticides.  But the statement above (I understand that you didn't write it)
goes beyond the pale!

The whole reason for the neonics is that humans and insects have different
nACh receptors--so neonics are virtually nontoxic to humans.  So the few ppb
that may be found in food "full of poison" are highly unlikely to be as
harmful to the human as the organochlorines and organophosphates that the
neonics have replaced.  Plus, neonics do no bioaccumulate in your body fat,
as did the organochlorines, which were replaced with organophosphates.

Organophosphates are quite toxic to vertebrates (nerve gas), and have in
some cases been replaced by less toxic (to vertebrates) carbamates.

The carbamates are highly toxic to bees and other insects, and are the cause
of many dead hives.

As you found with your own apple orchard, your consumers preferred to
consume pretty fruit that you had sprayed with toxic pesticides to your
organic fruit, so your principles took a back seat to your economics and you
now apply toxins to your apples.  Why do you expect other farmers not to do
the same?  Most are going to use pesticides.

The best that we can do is to encourage them to use the least harmful
pesticides.  Least harmful to humans in the first place, and to the
environment in the second place.  To that end, neonics clearly have a place.
 That is not to say that they aren't currently being overused and
misapplied.  But the alternative to them is less pretty than one of my wormy
apples!

Randy Oliver

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