Posted: Sunday, July 29, 2007 10:00 pm
The uninformed harm farming
I would like to thank all of the folks who have managed to just about shut down field burning in the Willamette Valley completely.
It is too bad that once again the uninformed majority is telling the farmer what to do and in a sense how to do it. In a time when all we hear and try to do is conserve our resources, you folks have almost managed to take away the most economically beneficial and environmentally friendly tool we farmers have for getting rid of residue, disease, weed and insect infestation problems.
To put it comparatively, it would be like you folks going from a car that gets 35 mpg, to something that gets 3 mpg; it puts a big strain on the fuel budget, doesn't it?
The pollution and resource depletion of that scenario would also be a problem, wouldn't it?
I guess the facts and economics of some issues just don't matter when you folks have such strong emotional feelings and personal agendas to fulfill. I would like you folks to remember that all agriculture is closely tied together. Our grass seed crops, which are the world leader in quality and production, are just as important as the wheat grown in the Midwest or all of the other crops grown all over this greatly blessed nation.
Please just remember that, as you folks sit in your backyard and enjoy the green grass and safe, plentiful food supply the farmers have provided you. Once again, thank you.
Josh Fitzmorris, Halsey
Josh Fitzmorris is a Linn County grass seed farmer.
How about a light urban vehicle?
M. Paul Lindsey (Letters, July 22) is correct that alcohol as a fuel is not the answer to global warming, or even energy independence.
Unfortunately his analysis is slightly incorrect, and his gratuitous reference to "econuts" makes me uncomfortable to be agreeing with him.
Let's just say that on the whole he is right that the gains from use of alcohol as a fuel are not great, and the environmental destruction and increased food costs that will result from "energy plantations" may be far worse for us than most people yet realize.
His suggestion for 1000-lb cars with 3-inch-wide wheels is not as far from being practical as you might suppose. A dedicated city car, a second car, that was light, and slow, and short-range, could be built fairly cheaply, not to replace the gas car where the gas car does best, but to replace it entirely for short trips in town.
If such a car was a plug-in electric using existing technology, it would run for pennies per mile in electricity and maybe 10 cents per mile counting battery costs. It would result in a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases associated with city driving, or a 10 percent reduction in total greenhouse gases over the entire economy. And of course reduce dependence on Mideast oil.
Cities should be looking into ways to encourage the development and use of such an urban vehicle.
Dale Coberly, Corvallis
My dog got sick from slug bait
I loved the article on shade plants called "Made in the Shade" (July 22, 2007) in the Sunday Home and Garden section except for one disturbing piece of information.
The article suggested using Sluggo, containing iron phosphate, to control slugs stating that iron phosphate is "not harmful to pets." This is not true. I took my Welsh Corgi to Town & Country Animal Clinic back in June of 2001 when I found her in the yard unable to stand/walk. My dog loves to eat, and I knew she had eaten Worryfree Slug and Snail (containing iron phosphate) that I had just put down for my dahlias.
My vet informed me that 1 teaspoon of iron phosphate is toxic to animals and 2 teaspoons is potentially lethal. Iron phosphate can cause vomiting, diarrhea, liver failure, and has cumulative effects over time on animals. My dog was paralyzed in her back legs, had severe diarrhea, and was hospitalized overnight and given IVs. You can find more information about iron phosphate on the EPA website.
As far as I'm aware there are no slug bait products on the market that are truly safe for animals. The only methods I have found to be effective to catch slugs are: a yeast cocktail (1 packet of yeast, 1 Tbl of flour, 1 Tbl. of sugar, 2 c. warm water), beer, and empty grapefruit halves turned upside down. Catch the slugs and kill them (smash with your shoe, put in the toilet, etc.).
I wrote to Garden Grow Co. in 2001 when this happened, and they responded that the product was safe. I prefer to believe my dog's reaction and my vet. Please don't use slug products to control the slug problem in your yard.
Nancy Haldeman, Corvallis
Simple fix: Burn at night!
Recently there have been several letters to the editor on the pros and cons of open field burning. I'm not taking either side, I just want the valley residents to hear my spin on burning.
I moved to the Willamette Valley in 1970. My employment took me around Linn County and into Marion, Benton, and Lane counties from time to time. Many many of those hours were at night. What a beautiful sight on a clear summer evening it was to see thousands of of acres grass fields on fire at the same time. There was a beautiful orange glow in every direction you looked. There was hardly a hint of the smell of smoke in the air. And what's more there was no smoke intrusions into Sweet Home, Brownsville or Eugene that I remember, at least not enough to make news in the Democrat-Herald the next day.
The burning was usually complete by the end of July, unlike in recent years where it's not complete until the end of September. During August and September the new grass crop has already started to grow and when burned that late in the season causes great amounts of smoke.
What has changed, you might ask? For one and the biggest is that burning is not allowed at night. DEQ regulation, you understand. Have to keep everything tightly regulated so it requires more employees. In the '70's when the DEQ didn't have so much power with few exceptions, the field burning went much better.
When the sun goes down the wind usually stops. That's the time to burn the fields. The fire due to extreme heat creates its own updraft like a fireplace carrying the smoke upward to 20,000 to 30,000 feet, where it is caught by upper-level winds and carried and mixed with those upper-level winds, and by the time it goes over the Cascades it's barely visible. Ever heard of Bend calling in a smoke intrusion complaint?
I think it's long past time to burn at night again. Sometimes common sense and ingenuity are better than men with sophisticated machines and instruments and college degrees who seem to have no common sense. DEQ, it's a simple fix. Are you listening?
Duane Rosenogle, Albany
Progressives harm people
Political liberals want to be known as "progressives" these days. So be it. I would like to get a progressive response to the following historical factual situations, one from Oregon and one from Africa. They have a common theme:
Progressives have fought any changes to the Endangered Species Act. It gave sightly more status to birds, animals and fish than to human beings. With the power of that act, progressives in Oregon seized on the northern spotted owl as the rallying cry to achieve their objective to shut down logging on public lands in Oregon. The result was great human suffering in eastern and western Oregon logging communities. Communities that had no other major income source than logging, where people had done this work for generations, liked doing it, and were very good at it. Financial hardships and family stresses were great. There is no evidence that the progressives who brought this about cared about the welfare of those people.
In Africa, up until the 1970s, the killer disease malaria was being well controlled with the use of DDT. Progressives used Rachel Carson's book, "Silent Spring," as a tool to collude with some African political forces to ban DDT. In the years since, it has been widely reported in all the media that millions of Africans have died from malaria since that time, who would not have if the disease-bearing mosquitoes had been controlled. Progressives say that there are now other ways to control the disease. But what about the 30 years since? There were no alternatives then. Just "Ban DDT."
In both situations, the people who pushed the bans, the progressives, did not suffer themselves. Progressives tell everybody they're for the people. Right.
Lee Findley, Corvallis
Higher ed and war on middle class
The irony of George Will's insult to the intellectual tradition of Antioch College (July 15) is too deep to comprehend. As a representative of an effete intellectualized establishment ideology, he continuously utters pious profundities about abstruse principles irrelevant to reality. As a servile acolyte of power, he never worries about a paycheck.
The business of higher education during this war on the middle class has been seriously distorted. An economy serving the military/industrial empire does not need critical thinkers, poets, artists, educators or philosophers. It needs Yale business grads and Regent Law School hacks.
It needs technocrats, not independent or original thinkers. It hires skilled cheaters, not morally honest people.
Antioch is going through a tough business period while its innovative extension campuses are doing well. How it will respond to the challenges of this time are not clear, but I expect more from Antioch in the green future than from Mr. Will and his ideologically frozen "white guys."
Don Caughey, Corvallis
The ins and outs of CO2
I have followed the letters about global warming with amusement for it is clear that some writers don't know what they are talking about.
One fellow worried that the CO2 bicyclists exhale might contribute to warming. Another suggested that we hold our breath to reduce CO2 emissions. Another was concerned with CO2 released from burning alcohol fuel.
The CO2 we exhale comes from food we eat. Food comes from plants, directly or indirectly. Plants take CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it into the fruits, vegetables and grains that we eat. Some of that grain is used to produce alcohol fuel. The CO2 generated from these products was removed from the atmosphere just a few weeks or months ago, so it causes no net change.
Fossil fuels come from CO2 that plants removed from the atmosphere millions of years ago. When we burn gas, oil or coal we release that ancient CO2 into the atmosphere again, increasing the levels of CO2.
Paul Lindsey (22 July) claimed the 25 mpg fuel economy of a 1948 Lincoln travelling at 90 mph is better than modern cars. He mistakenly compares the fuel consumption at a specific speed with average fuel economy. I conducted an experiment to determine the fuel usage of a large modern four-door sedan equipped with a six-cylinder fuel-injected engine and automatic transmission. At 20 mph it got 14 mpg, at 45 mph it got 29 mpg, and at 60 mph it got 37 mpg. I didn't test at higher speeds, but extrapolation suggests that it would get 40 to 45 mpg at 85 to 90 mph.
I agree with Mr. Lindsey that alcohol is a poorer fuel than gasoline, but we don't have to send money to supporters of Arab terrorists to get it, and it doesn't contribute to global warming. I also agree that it would be much better to park the road-hog gas guzzlers, but it would be a mistake to remove emission controls. I lived in Los Angeles and Tokyo in the 1960s and '70s and I have experienced
terrible automobile-generated smog.
Phillip Hays, Corvallis