The esteemed biologist Rachel Carson once wrote in her famous book Silent Spring, “A grim specter has crept upon us almost unnoticed, and this imagined tragedy may easily become a stark reality we all shall know” (3). In this quote Carson means chemical pesticides have become so widely used they will cause tragedy to sweep the entire country in an epidemic. She draws a parallel between the coming of the Angel of Death, Azrael, and the result from the usage of these substances on crops. This parallel shows the true result of the persistent organic polluters that our society has become enamored with and feel like are necessary for daily life. Carson was able to see the result of this path even back in the 1962 and received massive support until the end of the end of the stormy sixties when environmentalism fell out of fashion, but the problems didn’t go away.
Environmentalism is not a trend; it is a way of life. In the face of avaricious agricultural chemical conglomerates like Syngenta, today more than ever, environmentalists are needed. Throughout the United States, there are many different problem areas for environmental impact, but the primarily agricultural Dubois County is in trouble because of the rampant usage of atrazine as a chemical pesticide to grow corn even cheaper. Atrazine is responsible for creating a dangerous environment in the region for all living things-including ones that are not the intended targets. From humans to aquatic creatures, all the innocents are given a wrongful conviction and death sentence through this miscarriage of justice which should be overturned through an outright ban on atrazine and atrazine- containing products.
Atrazine is throwing away the food web. For instance, in their study, Tyrone B. Hayes et al. designed a study where selective breeding made the starting frogs male and while the control sample stayed male 10% of the Atrazine treated frogs became female even though they were determined to be genetically male (4612). This result is significant because it shows a correlation that Atrazine is an endocrine disrupter which will result in problems with the food web. In Ferdinand, Indiana, fishing is a somewhat common activity during the summer. Even as a young child, I remember my grandfather taking me out fishing. We were in the populous who would simply throw the fish back in, but others would actually eat them. I also remember how we were forced to move from lake to lake because the amount of fish in each lake continued to drop. The population drops in the lakes became such a problem we eventually had to join a membership only lake in order to catch anything. This drop was no coincidence. My grandfather had been fishing in the same spots for the better part of seventy years and the population drop was accompanied by one thing, the rampant spraying of atrazine on the area corn. Eventually, the problems began to be seen in unrelated species like squirrels and deer during the hunting season because of one small disruption in fish. The predators who would normally rely on a combination of woodland creatures and fish were forced to focus on forest animals. The pervasive spraying of Atrazine was to blame for the disruption in populations in the community. The fish were unable to reproduce at the levels they once were since the number of males dropped, which resulted in a massive drop in population. The death warrant that Syngenta signed for these animals directly led to the drop in the fish population causing a ripple effect through the other species of the area.
Atrazine is causing an epidemic of “failure to thrive” in the animal community. In their study, Jason R. Rohr and Krista McCoy explain how amphibians and fish have to divert energy from growth to detoxify atrazine from their system which causes a delay in growth (21). These effects were prevalent and I remember seeing them when I was fishing. Every lake that allows public fishing must have a sign stating the sizes of fish that are ok to keep and the sizes that must be thrown back in addition to numbers of fish allowed to take. Over time, my grandfather and I saw the sizes and numbers allowed to take decreased and the fish that we were catching seemed to be smaller and smaller every year. A quick look at the current state regulations for large mouth bass yields that Ferdinand State Forest requires the bass to be outside of 12 to 15 inches and Patoka Lake requires the bass to be larger than 15 inches which are some of the lowest size requirements in the state of Indiana for areas that don’t follow the state requirements (Indiana Department of Natural Resources). For a large mouth bass, these sizes are minuscule. Size limits are only enacted when the natural population is threatened in some way. The fact that these sizes are tiny implies that the fish in the area are not growing like they should. When an animal or human doesn’t grow like it should that is called “failure to thrive”. In a normal population, few animals should be “failure to thrive” but atrazine skews it lower because the animals must detox their bodies instead of growing. This result is exactly what is happening in Dubois county. The fish are shrinking and suffering from “failure to thrive” because of the unchecked atrazine use. This epidemic of “failure to thrive” is only happening because the farms want to make corn even more cheaply, so instead of doing what is best for everyone, agribusiness hands out death sentences like candy on Halloween.
Hurst, Mary Margaret. Boy and Grandfather. 1999. 35mm Photography.
This photograph shows that atrazine is figuratively killing the natural beauty in Dubois County through the coloration. In the background is a Ferdinand, Indiana, cornfield early in the growing season. From the sky that looks about to storm to the lack of any defined highlights the overall image has a grim coloration. The usage of a grainy film further exaggerates the grim coloration because the grain makes the picture looking more like a documentary picture rather than simply a family picture. A stormy sky is also a common motif used to exhibit impending doom. Since the artist purposely included a cloudy dark sky in the picture she had to be implying that the pesticides used in the background are going to hurt her grandson. Since there are no defined highlights, including in places they are expected like on the metal rings of the barrel, it also implies that darkness is washing over the town. This darkness is the unchecked epidemic of atrazine use. The grandmother that took this photograph saw the change over time in her home and created the image to document the loss of natural beauty. It was through her symbolic elements like grim coloration that she was able to catch the eye of the viewer to bring it in before finally driving the point home.
This photograph also shows the literal destruction caused by rampant atrazine usage in Dubois county. Between the roadway and the corn field there is a defined line of nothing. This line is caused by overspray from the farm equipment that sprays the atrazine on the corn. Instead of having an area that would be populated by wildflowers and other plants that would create a natural and beautiful barrier between the road and the field, there is a giant patch of nothing. The photographer also wanted to document that because of atrazine overspray there was severe erosion when it rains leading
to the formation of a small ditch. If this hillside was in a town that wasn’t agricultural then that small hill would be covered in wildflowers and other beautiful natural plants instead of empty soil. The picture also shows irregular patches of grass in the foreground of the image. While it may seem like a minute detail, it is gargantuan. These irregular patches of grass are caused by overspray from the atrazine used on the corn ending up on grass that is not atrazine resistant. The photographer wanted to document how the atrazine was being blown across the street and onto her lawn causing dead patches. Since she made sure to include small patches it drives home the point even more about atrazine killing off unintended parts of the environment in Dubois County. This idea directly shows how atrazine is hurting the environment in Dubois County since the places that aren’t meant to be destroyed are.
The inclusion of a grandfather and child in the photograph shows how atrazine affects everyone in Dubois County. A small child is a common motif for innocence and the elderly is a typical motif for a helplessness. By depicting two of the most vulnerable groups in society in the image the photographer is able to show how atrazine will eventually get to them. Atrazine will start out far away and not seem like it hurts them but it will eventually find them and bring them down too. The photographer wanted to make sure this idea was shown which is why she showed her husband and grandson. The two are also depicted as doing everyday yard work which shows how atrazine is going to hurt the population during their daily life. This depiction shows that atrazine is a silent killer of sorts. It is used and then builds up before finally causing the damaging effects. This idea means that while plants are affected quickly, humans will take more time to show the symptoms. This grandmother began to see these problems at the beginning of the atrazine epidemic which caused her to focus on bringing light through this photograph. The photo describes a situation where no one is safe in Dubois County from the atrazine exposure which is the main miscarriage of justice for the area.
Atrazine destroys the psyche of people. While this result may seem like an extreme reaction, the reality of the situation is consistent. According to Janet Raloff, “Atrazine’s ability to provoke hormonal perturbation in test animals is one of the more dramatic signs of its toxicity…The presence of too much estrogen or estrogen at the worn time can not only alter reproductive development but also can pose cancer risks” (19). This excerpt shows how Atrazine acts as an endocrine disrupter by affecting the female reproductive system in a similar way to “the pill” only with more risks. Around the time I was born, the effects of Atrazine runoff were just being discovered and my town had been finding high levels in the drinking water. My friend Xavier’s parents grappled with the inability to have children for a good portion of their marriage until he was born. He is their only natural-born child. They tried for several more years after he was born until they finally gave up and adopted his sister. The problem was that the couple was healthy and in the prime of their life, there was no medical reason why they shouldn’t have been able to have children. This narrative continued to become very common for the families where the mother had lived a good portion of her recent life in Ferdinand, like for Camilla a fourth-grade teacher or Norah a second-grade teacher. Atrazine induces a similar effect in women like “the pill” does, which makes it impossible for people to have their own children. In a predominantly Catholic community birth control is not only discouraged but having your own children is viewed as being a better Catholic. The populous of this town is being put down by their peers with many children because of callous disregard by the chemical companies that produce atrazine. These people are given a sentence to be viewed as less by their peers and have their psyche disrupted because they also don’t think they are being “good enough” Catholics. This thinking results in a group of people who are being destroyed mentally from all angles because of Syngenta’s dangerous environmental creation.
Atrazine is causing a death of development for humans. In the study designed by Hugo Ochoa-Acuña et al. which focused specifically on Indiana and included data specifically about Dubois County and it was determined while there is not a correlation between prenatal atrazine expose from drinking water and preterm delivery, there is a correlation between prenatal atrazine from drinking water and small gestational age (SGA) (1622-1623). SGA is “defined as birth weight below the 10th percentile for a given sex and gestational week” (Ochoa-Acuña et al. 1619). To put this data into perspective a control group had about 11% SGA, but if the fetus was in the third trimester during the growing season when atrazine concentrations are highest in the drinking water the medium and high exposure group skyrocketed by 19% and 17% from 14.3% and 13.1% respectively (Ochoa-Acuña et al. 1621). It is impossible for this significant increase to be coincidental. For example, my birthday is August second. This timeline means that I was in the final trimester from May until I was born. When I was born I was considered full term but I was underweight and they thought I may have to be life flighted to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis because of a heart condition that being underweight may magnify an in utero heart condition. To make a long story short, I popped out and was perfectly fine without a heart condition but there are many children who aren’t as lucky. These conditions are caused by the atrazine in the water supply because the fetus must detoxify the chemical instead of growing. These children are being given a sentence to live their entire life with a death of development because of the callous
disregard for taking into account the effects that atrazine will have on them. They will always be smaller than their peers who weren’t exposed to the chemical. It is through this result that the children in this area are having their development stunted and therefore killed. These children are one of the biggest innocents that are being hurt by this chemical unnecessarily.
Atrazine should be banned, today. Between 1992 and 2003, the two communities with watersheds that are at least partially contained in Dubois County of Holland and Winslow were sent notices for excessive concentrations of Atrazine in the filtered drinking water (Leer 3). These violations were prior to the re-registration of atrazine by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that limited the usage of the pesticide to only a handful of states and required the states like Indiana who still used the pesticide to bring the concentrations in drinking water under 3 parts per billion (Johnson and Whitfield 3). These sources show that the EPA is already attempting to limit the usage of this harmful chemical but the problems aren’t going to stop by simply limiting the usage; an outright ban should be enacted to prevent the future from being afflicted by the death and destruction caused by atrazine. Instead of allowing the future generations to also be hurt by this chemical pesticide we should just get rid of it because it’s not going to leave the water supply without that action being taken. The atrazine will simply stay in these communities in a high concentration and possibly spread to other major cities. Eagle Creek in Indianapolis is already requiring strict monitoring and Fort Wayne has been sent a notice of violation (Leer 3). The next cities could be Chicago or Louisville. Atrazine knows no boundary; if there is water, atrazine can and will spread there. This spreading is precisely why it should be banned because it will eventually affect everyone. It will start in the midwest but the currents and rivers will eventually take it to other larger cities and wreak havoc. Instead of allowing the death and destruction the only real option is a ban for this miscarriage of justice.
This usage wouldn’t be allowed on either coast. If the bulk of Manhattan or Hollywood or any other location in a state that borders an ocean were experiencing fish that are failing to thrive or massive reproductive issues then atrazine would be banned over night, but since these places are getting cheap corn no one cares about the rednecks that are producing it. Instead of having a Bono benefit concert we get hospital stays and the inability to grow, but we must be stronger in the Midwest because we are told to just accept our fate and live with it. The government or news would help if we were New York or Portland or even New Orleans, but since we are rednecks there isn’t a need to give help. The people in Dubois County and Indiana, in general would actually push the envelope to get help too, if there were in a place like Berkeley, California or Ithaca or Bethel, New York. The people in Dubois County, however, are kept ignorant on the problems because they are obedient and believe everything that the Republican puppet masters want them to believe. There are two ways to solve the problems in the area because of this thinking. The first would be the improbable epiphany that the populous would have to have. The second and more realistic one would be an outside force like the government acting to stomp out the fire of rampant atrazine spraying through a ban. These options are the only realistic ones because the companies only care about their bottom line instead of the death and destruction their products actually cause. This reason is precisely why atrazine should be banned because it would be banned these problems happened in a state with a coast.
Atrazine is the new DDT and should have the same fate. In a personal interview with a Customer Development Manager with 21 years experience at Winfield Solutions, LLC. which is a subsidiary of Land O’ Lakes, inc., Evan Wilson told me that, “Modern chemical pesticides are not DDT. Modern regulations are much better, and the chemicals that cause cancer don’t even make it to market. If you are really worried just wash it off.” In a quick look at the Winfield website I was able to immediately see atrazine is one of their products, and it comes in two forms Atrazine 4L and Atrazine 90DF (Winfield Solutions). The research is out there to dispute atrazine’s safety. The myth of washing off your foods has also been disputed because of how long it would take to get all the harmful chemicals off the foods. This interview began to turn into a propaganda statement about the benefits of pesticides without mentioning any of the risks. DDT at one time was also marketed as completely safe. Looking back on that fiasco that almost led to the extinction of our national Mascot, the Bald Eagle, the parallels are uncanny. The environmental disruption is happening again but the manufacturers don’t want the average person to know about it because it will hurt their bottom line. Once atrazine is finally condemned to the past, it will be viewed in the same light as DDT because of the grim effects and the fight agribusiness is putting up. If agribusiness cared they would stop the use, but it will take governmental action again to rewrite the miscarriage of justice again like it had to do with DDT.
You don’t need a perfect looking food. Again in a the conversation with Evan Wilson, he informed me that, “When you think of an apple you don’t think of a greenish thing with spots, you think of a bright red apple. Washington apples just don’t happen naturally. They require pesticides.” As nice as a pretty apple is to look at, I’m going to eat; if I wanted to stare at a nice apple I would buy wax fruit because at least then it won’t mold after a short amount of time. Perfect food is not worth the environmental devastation it causes. It is literally just going to be eaten, not put into the Museum of Modern Art or the
Louvre. Perfect corn does not digest any better than corn that has spots or bites. The thinking that requires every ear of corn to be perfect is superfluous and leading to mass devastation. The only way to change this thinking is to make atrazine infused perfect foods banned. This reason is precisely why atrazine should go the way of the dinosaurs through a ban.
Rampant atrazine spraying is a major factor in the destruction of the environment in Dubois County, Indiana. It is leading the region down a path toward devastation for unintended innocent species including aquatic animals and humans. These creatures are being given a miscarriage of justice today. So, are we going to follow the example Rachel Carson set back in the 1960s in her push for the ban on DDT, or are we going to allow agribusiness to continue to give communities a death sentence so they may create cheap corn produced using atrazine.Works Cited
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. 25th Anniversary ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Print. Hayes, Tyrone B., Vicky Khoury, Anne Narayan, Mariam Nazir, Andrew Park, Travis Brown,
Lillian Adame, Elton Chan, Daniel Buchholz, Theresa Stueve, Sherrie Gallipeau, and David B. Wake. “Atrazine Induces Complete Feminization And Chemical Castration In Male African Clawed Frogs (Xenopus Laevis).” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107.10 (2010): 4612-617. JSTOR. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Hurst, Mary Margaret. Boy and Grandfather. 1999. 35mm Photography.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources. “2012 Indiana Fishing Regulations.” Indiana Department of Natural Resources, 2012. PDF File.
Johnson, Bill and Fred Whitford. “Atrazine and Drinking Water: Understanding the Needs of Farmers and Citizens.” Purdue Extension, 2007. PDF File.
Leer, Steve. “Atrazine and Drinking Water: Understanding the Needs of Farmers and Citizens.” Purdue University, 2005. PDF File.
Ochoa-Acuña, Hugo, Jane Frankenberger, Leighanne Hahn, and Cristina Carbajo. “Drinking-
Water Herbicide Exposure in Indiana and Prevalence of Small-for-Gestational-Age and Preterm Delivery.” Environ Health Perspect Environmental Health Perspectives (2009): 1619-624. JSTOR. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Raloff, Janet. “Weed Killer in the Crosshairs: Concerns Prompt Reexamination of Atrazine’s
Safety.” Science News (2010): 18-21. JSTOR. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
Rohr, Jason R., and Krista McCoy. “A Qualitative Meta-Analysis Reveals Consistent Effects Of
Atrazine On Freshwater Fish And Amphibians.” Environmental Health Perspectives 118.1 (2010): 20-32. JSTOR. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Winfield Solutions. “WinField – Product Detail.” WinField – Product Detail. WinField, 2015. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. .
Wilson, Evan. Personal Interview. 27 Nov. 2015.