卡尔逊《寂静的春天》让我们知道了杀虫剂的危害,今天,当年她呼吁的环境问题解决了吗?是减缓了还是加重了?今年新版的《毒化的春天》将告诉你很多不为知晓的内幕! 本文详细链接:http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4bb17e9d0102ee2k.html Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the E.P.A. 毒化的春天:污染秘史与美国环境保护署 Vallianatos, E. G. (author) and McKay Jenkins (author). 伊瓦格罗斯 · 瓦连纳托斯(作者)与麦凯 · 詹金斯(作者) 出版日期: 2014 年 4 月 作者 2014 年 3 月 13 日邮件写给中国政府部门、出版社与读者们的话 First of all, thanks so much for the GM food documentary. It is timely, insightful, balanced and well done. My congratulations to you and Yohgyuan Cui. 首先,非常感谢关于转基因食品的电视纪录片。及时、富有洞察力、平衡的观察,制作的非常好。向你与崔永元表示祝贺。 The lessons of Poison Spring are relevant to China. “ 毒化的春天 ” 与中国相关。 The book decries the abuse of power from the chemical and agribusiness industries as well as government executives. 这部书对化学产业与农业产业以及政府决策官员们滥用权力进行了谴责。 That abuse has accelerated pollution of waters, food and the natural world. The result of such irresponsible behavior is disease and death among people and animals, especially wildlife. 权力的滥用加速了水、食物与自然界的污染。这种不负责任的行为的结果在民众与动物中,特别野生动物中,造成疾病与死亡。 These effects are also evident in China because China is industrializing its ancient agriculture. 这样的影响在中国也非常显然,因为中国也在对其原始的农业实行工业化。 China also follows the Western / American model of environmental regulation, including this model's major defects. 中国也在效仿西方 / 美国环境监管模式,包括效仿这种模式的主要缺陷。 One of those defects is reliance on pesticides, petrochemicals deleterious to all life. 这种监管模式的缺陷之一是依赖危害所有生命的农药、石化产品。 Second, governments, probably the government of China, rely on the industry to test its products. 这种监管模式的第二个缺陷是,各国政府,中国政府也可能同样,依赖于产业界测试自己产品的安全性。 Poison Spring documents why such a policy is bad. “ 毒化的春天 ” 记录了依赖于产业界测试自己产品安全性的政策为什么有害。 Companies making profits from chemicals are not going to be entirely honest about the test they perform. China ought to abolish pesticides. But should it be necessary to use pesticides, a Chinese government agency ought to test chemicals. 企业公司要从自己的化学产品获利,他们对他们测试的情况不会完全诚实。中国应当中国应该废化学除草剂、杀虫剂。但是如果有必要使用某些除草剂、杀虫剂,应当由政府机构负责对这些化学品的测试。 Finally, Poison Spring argues that environmental protection is essential to health, life and national and world security. 最后, “ 毒化的春天 ” 论证 “ 环境保护 ” 对健康、声明、国家与世界安全至关重要。 Pollution is deadly, sometimes immediately, but, most often, in the long term. 污染意味着死亡,有时是立即死亡,但是,最大部分情况,是长期缓慢死亡。 The book also documents that the best way out of excessive pollution or contamination of drinking water and food in small farms. 这本书同时介绍小规模家庭农场如何成为摆脱对饮水与食物过量污染的最好方法。 China has an honorable and ancient tradition of small farms. Chinese small family farmers have all the agroecological knowledge they need to raise the country's food without pesticides or very small amounts of pesticides. Besides, small farmers are very productive and efficient. China needs no foreign models of development. 中国具有小农场荣耀的和古老传统。中国小农场农民拥有不用农药或者仅使用很少量农药解决全国食物需要的所有农业生态知识。此外,小规模农户生产能力强非常有效。中国发展生态农业不需要任何外国模式。 For these reasons Poison Spring speaks to the reality in China. I would recommend you translate and publish the book in China. 由于这些理由, “ 毒化的春天 ” 所谈的正是中国面临的现实。我推荐你们翻译并且在中国出版这部著作。 《毒化的春天:污染秘史与美国环保署》的作者简介 https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/show/id/41926 E. G. Vallianatos is the author of five books, including Harvest of Devastation and This Land is Their Land , as well as more than two hundred articles, including pieces in Alternet.org and Truth-Out.org. He is also a blogger for the Huffington Post . He worked in risk evaluation at the EPA for twenty-five years, and now lives in Claremont, California. E·G· 瓦连纳托斯是五部书的作者,包括《收获灾难》与《这个土地是他们的土地》,以及两百多篇文章的作者,包括在开放式学术刊物 Alternet.org 与 Truth-Out.org 上发表的多篇论文。他同时为《赫芬顿邮报》担任博客专栏作者。他在美国环境保护署工作了 25 年,从事风险评价工作。他居住在加利福尼亚州 Claremont 市。 His coauthor McKay Jenkins has been writing about humans and the natural world for just as long. His most recent book, What’s Gotten Into Us: Staying Healthy in a Toxic World , was hailed as “a Silent Spring for the human body” by Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone . Jenkins is the Cornelius Tilghman Professor of English, Journalism, and Environmental Humanities at the University of Delaware, where he has won the Excellence in Teaching Award. 合作作者麦凯 · 詹金斯二十多年来长期写作关于人类与自然界的文章。他最近出版的著作《什么进入了我们的体内:在毒性世界保持健康》,被理查德 · 普勒斯顿赞扬为 “ 人体的情悄悄的春天 ” ,普勒斯顿为畅销书《热区域》的作者。詹金斯在特拉华大学英语、新闻学与人文环境学教授,获得 “ 优异教授 ” 奖,与 Cornelius Tilghman 齐名。 Vallianatos exposes EPA through his book – Poison Spring 瓦连纳托斯在他的书《毒化的春天》对美国环境保护署进行揭露 http://www.tonu.org/2014/06/06/poisonspring/ Tony Mitra, 2014-06-06 托尼 · 米特拉, 2014 年 6 月 6 日 《毒性的春天》作者:伊瓦格罗斯 · 瓦连纳托斯 As the title says, Evaggelos Vallianatos, along with Mr. M. Jenkins co-authored the book on EPA, and how the organization has been literally captured by the toxic chemical industry, to the disadvantage of the average American, and by extension, of the people the world over. 如书名所言,伊瓦格罗斯 · 瓦连纳托斯,及其合作者 M· 杰金斯一起撰写了关于美国环境保护署( EPA )的这部著作,揭示 EPA 如何实际上被毒性化学产业绑架与操控,不仅不利于普通美国人民,而且不利于更大范围世界人民。 I found the book very useful to understand how toxic chemicals get approved and how much of a clout the industry has over the regulatory mechanism. 对于理解毒性化学品如何获得批准,理解产业界对监管机制有多么巨大的影响力。 So much so that approached Evaggelos Vallianatos for a phone interview, even if I was not very successful in pronouncing his first name accurately. 为此我联系了 伊瓦格罗斯 · 瓦连纳托斯,进行了一次电话采访,尽管我念他的名字不太成功。 He agreed and we had a talk a few days ago. 他同意,我们几天前进行了谈话。 Here are the basic points: 谈话的要点如下: l The prevailing culture in EPA was to pretty much let the chemical industry to run the show. l 美国环境保护署( EPA )中目前的文化基本上是让化学产业主导其工作。 l The Government has been captured by the industry, and EPA is simply an example. l 政府被产业界绑架, EPA 更是这方面实例。 l EPA is too important to be allowed to be dominated by such outside forces. l EPA 的职责太重要了,不能够允许它受到外部势力的垄断。 l Decision made in EPA are questionable due to the influence that comes from the Congress, from the White House and directly from the Chemical Industry. l EPA 内部做出的决定令人之一,因为这些决定受到的来自国会、来自白宫以及直接来自化学产业的影响。 l Credibility of science has been damaged due to the history of fraud in the testing of these toxic chemicals for decades. l 几十年来对这些毒性化学品试验中造假的历史,使科学的可信度遭到破坏。 l The climate of fear, and acceptance of outside influence, is still pervasive. l 恐惧的氛围以及接受外部影响,依然普遍。 l America aught to reject the current EPA and redesign it as an independent organization, with a wall of protection from the industry so the scientists would feel secure and confident that their work and decisions are to be made on reliable and untampered data. l 美国应当放弃目前的 EPA ,将它重新设计为一个独立的机构,建立防止产业界干预的防火墙,使科学家从事工作时能够感到安全与有信心,使他们的工作与决定能够基于可靠没有受到扭曲的资料。 l Also, the EPA or the Government needs to create a set of independent laboratories to test all these chemicals before they get into the market, and not rely on labs under control of the industry. l 此外, EPA 或者政府需要创建一组独立实验室,对这些化学品进入市场前进行试验,而不是依赖受到产业控制的实验室。 l Credibility of the industry right now is as good as zero. Nobody trusts it’s findings. He himself would not trust them because of what he has seen in EPA. l 对产业界自己进行的试验的信任度目前为零。没有人信任他们试验的结果。 伊瓦格罗斯本人,由于他在 EPA 内部看到的情况,也不能相信 产业界自己进行的试验。 l This is very important because this not only affects the people of America, but also of Canada and pretty much of the industrial world and beyond. l 这非常重要,因为这种状况不仅影响美国人民,而且影响加拿大人民,还很大程度上影响整个工业化世界与更多人民。 l This system needs to be reformed, and its workings set right, and the industry needs to be kept away from interfering with the work of this agency. l 这个系统需要改革,他们的工作必须纠正,必须防止产业界干预 EPA 的工作。 l We need to raise awareness by speaking about it, in Canada, in USA and elsewhere, in order to raise public awareness to the level where it can make an impact. l 我们必须通过谈论这些问题提高人们的认识,在加拿大、在美国以及其他地方,将公众认识的水平提高到能够施加改革影响的程度。 l IT has been 53 years since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring. There should be no need now to re-state the problem, and we are still tackling with the same old problem albeit with a new breed of toxicity. l 雷切尔 · 卡森写《寂静的春天》到现在已经 53 年。目前原本不需要重新提出这些问题,虽然我们我们仍在解决新一代毒性化学品造成的相同老问题。 l SPAN book TV has interviewed Dr. Vallianatos to be broadcast soon – and people are encouraged to see it. l 一家书评电视台已经采访了 伊瓦格罗斯,很快播放 -- 鼓励人们看这个节目。 l Eggevelos Vallianatos would love to speak to Canadians on this. l 伊瓦格罗斯 · 瓦连纳托斯非常愿意向加拿大公众做介绍。 l He believes, if we have to select just a handful of pesticides that should be that should be removed immediately, we might kick our 2,4-D and Glyphosate. l 他相信,如果我们选择需要立即禁止的少数农药的化,我们应当优先考虑 2,4-D 和草甘膦。 l When EPA banned 2,4,5-T, they likely made a secret agreement with Dow not to touch 2,4-D since it was so popular. l EPA 禁止 2,4,5-T 时,他们与陶化学公司达成了秘密协议:不碰 2,4-D ,因为它销售太普遍。 l Glyphosate in Roundup is used for decades and there are some experts that believe it will destroy American agriculture. We don’t think such extremely toxic substances should be in our environment. l 草甘膦除草剂农达中的草甘膦已经使用了几十年,某些专家认为草甘膦将毁灭美国农业。我认为这样非常毒性的物质不应当进入我们的环境。 l Moms Across America has some young mothers test their breast milk and found traces of Glyphosate in them. Imagine the feeling of the mothers when they know they might poison their babies through breast feeding !! l 《妈妈们纵横美国》的一些年轻母亲们检测了她们的母乳,发现有草甘膦残留。你们相像一下这些母亲的感受,知道她们可能通过母乳喂奶毒害她们的宝宝,她们是什么感受!! l There is science papers out there already about how bad these toxins are for many animals and even humans. And now it is in mothers milk. l 已经发表了许多科学论文,让人们知道这些毒素对许多动物甚至人类有多么大危害。甚至母乳中现在都有了其残留。 l Governments should ban it. There is enough good food possible through organic clean agriculture. There is no need for this toxic model. l 政府应当禁绝草甘膦。通过有机的干净的农业,我们完全可能有足够的好的食品。这样的毒性模式完全没有必要。 l So why is this toxic industry surviving? Not to provide nutrition or kill insects do any favour to nature or people, Vallianatos argues. They survive so a small number of corporations can have a mega empire. l 为什么这样的毒性产业还能够生存?不是为了提供营养,杀死害虫对向自然界或者民众有什么益处, 瓦连纳托斯强调。这些毒素继续生存仅为了少数公司能够保持其巨型帝国。 l Advise to Canadians – start eating organic food. Doing so you avoid GMO, you avoid pesticide, you avoid sludge, radiation, and other synthetic chemicals. Then, start influencing others to do the same. Join environment protection groups. Then try to organize bigger groups to influence the politics of your region and your nation. l 对加拿大人的建议 -- 首先应当开始吃有机食品。这样做你能够避免转基因,避免农药、避免工业污泥、放射性以及其他合成化学品的危害。然后开始影响其他人也吃有机食品。参加环境保护团体。然后,努力组织更大的团体影响你们地区性以及你们国家的相关政治决策。 电话采访录音: http://www.tonu.org/tonu/MyAudio/20140603_Vallianatos_Final.mp3 Its a 14 minute interview. You can listen to it directly at the bottom of this page, or you can download it to play later through your music player. 这个电话录音只有 14 分钟。你可以通过下边的链接直接听这个录音,也可以下载以后再听。 I shall be glad to hear your option. Write to tony.mitra@gmail.com 我非常愿意听到你们听了这个电话采访录音以后的看法。我的邮箱: to tony.mitra@gmail.com 《亚马逊》书评: “ 餐馆菜单如果列出食物含氯代烃类杀虫剂,你会怎么办? ” http://www.amazon.com/Poison-Spring-Secret-History-Pollution/dp/1608199142 Imagine walking into a restaurant and finding chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides, or neonicotinoid insecticides listed in the description of your entree. They may not be printed in the menu, but many are in your food. 相像一下,你走进一家餐厅,发现菜单上某些菜的说明说这道菜含氯代烃类残留,那道菜含烟碱类杀虫剂杀虫剂残留,你会是什么感觉。实际上,菜单中没有这样的注明,但你吃的许多食物中确实有。 These are a few of the literally millions of pounds of approved synthetic substances dumped into the environment every day, not just in the US but around the world. 这只是每天倾泻到环境中数百万磅经过批准的化合物中的几种,不仅仅在美国,而且在全世界各地。 They seep into our water supply, are carried thousands of miles by wind and rain from the site of application, remain potent long after they are deposited, and constitute. 这些化合物渗入我们的水供应系统,风和雨把它们从喷洒地携带到数千英里之外,它们被丢弃与构成后很长时间保持其强大毒性作用。 In the words of one scientist, “biologic death bombs with a delayed time fuse and which may prove to be, in the long run, as dangerous to the existence of mankind as the arsenal of atom bombs.” 如一位科学家所说, “ 生物死亡炸弹带有一个延迟起启动引信,长期而言,它们对人类生存的危险性不亚于核武器库。 ” All of these poisons are sanctioned--or in some cases, ignored--by the EPA. 所有这些毒素都得到美国环境保护署的认可,或某些情况下被他们忽略。 For twenty-five years E.G. Vallianatos saw the EPA from the inside, with rising dismay over how pressure from politicians and threats from huge corporations were turning it from the public's watchdog into a polluter's protection agency. E·G· 瓦连纳托斯从内部对美国环保管理署( EPA )观察了 25 年,亲眼看到 EPA 在政治家们的压力下与巨头公司的威胁下如何从公共监察机构堕落为 “ 污染保护机构 ” ,让他越来越沮丧。 Based on his own experience, the testimony of colleagues, and hundreds of documents Vallianatos collected inside the EPA, Poison Spring reveals how the agency has continually reinforced the chemical-industrial complex. 基于他自己的经验,同事们的证词,以及 瓦连纳托斯在 EPA 内部收集到的数百个文件, “ 毒化的春天 ” 揭露 EPA 如何不断强化了化学 -- 产业体。 Writing with acclaimed environmental journalist McKay Jenkins, E.G. Vallianatos provides a devastating exposé of how the agency created to protect Americans and our environment has betrayed its mission. 与著名的环境记者麦凯 · 詹金斯一起撰写这本书, E·G· 瓦连纳托斯致命揭露了为了保护美国人与我们的环境美国环境保护署如何从背叛了其宗旨。 Half a century after Rachel Carson's Silent Spring awakened us to the dangers of pesticides, we are poisoning our lands and waters with more toxic chemicals than ever. 雷切尔 · 卡森《寂静的春天》让我们醒悟农药的危险后半个世纪,我们正在用毒性严重的多的化学品毒化我们的土地和水。 《新书目在线》书评: http://www.booklistonline.com/Poison-Spring-The-Secret-History-of-Pollution-and-the-E-P-A-E-G-Vallianatos/pid=6604561 Two outstanding environmental writers team up to tell the excoriating story of catastrophic collusion between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the chemical industry. 两位知名的环境保护保护作家结伴揭露环境影保护署( EPA )与化学产业之间灾难性勾结的故事。 Vallianatos worked for the EPA from 1979 to 2004 and witnessed the systematic undermining of the agency’s mission to set standards for environmental and health safety by major chemical manufacturers whose ruthless lobbying strategies were as insidious as the ecologically disastrous pesticides they aggressively promoted and brazenly misused. 瓦连纳托斯从 1979 年到 2004 年为 EPA 工作了 25 年,亲眼目睹对环境与健康安全性设立标准的环境保护署的职责如何遭到主要化学企业集团系统性的破坏,他们 无情的游说策略像他们厚颜无耻大力推广的生态灾难杀虫剂一样阴险。 The title of this jaw-dropping exposé is a riff on Rachel Carson’s 1963 landmark protest of the use of DDT, Silent Spring . 这部令人惊叹揭露专著的题目仿效自 雷切尔 · 卡森 1963 年抗议使用 DDT 里程碑意义的《寂静的春天》。 The carefully documented crimes and betrayals Poison Spring reveals unfold on two fronts. 《毒化的春天》从两个方面展开与翔实记录一系列犯罪与背叛。 Most alarming are the harrowing facts about the thousands of deadly synthetic chemicals that have for decades been released into the biosphere and which we continually absorb, from dioxin to agrochemical nerve gas to the weed killer Roundup. 最为令人警觉的是数千种致命毒素化合物释放到生物圈中几十年悲惨事实,我们至今还在吸收二恶英到农业化学神经毒气到草甘膦除草剂农达。 Vallianatos and Jenkins explain the science behind these poisons and their many dire effects, from cancer to the death of honeybee colonies. 瓦连纳托斯与 詹金斯解释了这些毒素后边的科学及其一系列可怕的影响,从致癌到蜜蜂群死亡。 Equally appalling is the silencing of heroic EPA whistle--blowers, fraudulent scientific studies, and the hijacking of the democratic process. 同样令人震惊的是揭露环境保护署使英勇的举报者沉默、欺骗性的科学研究,以及对民主进程的劫持。 In this riveting indictment, Vallianatos and Jenkins valiantly divulge the blinding greed and unfathomable stupidity behind these unconscionable lies and travesties—assaults against the very fabric of life. 这些引人入胜的控诉中 瓦连纳托斯与 詹金斯 勇敢地披露这些不合理谎言背后炫目的贪婪和深不可测的愚蠢和悲剧 -- 攻击损害生命的根基。 A resounding call for genuine and sustained environmental responsibility. 这部著作对真正和持续的环保责任发出响亮的呼唤。 — Donna Seaman -- 多娜 · 希曼 Publishers Weekly : Review 美国《出版者周报》书评: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-60819-914-3 Vallianatos, after a 25-year stint at the Environmental Protection Agency, pulls back the curtain on the watchdog agency’s failure to guard public safety and monitor land use due to steady erosion of its enforcement practices. With environmental journalist Jenkins he blasts the EPA’s ineptitude since its 1970 inception, intensely pressured as it is by politicians and corporations to approve the use of synthetic chemicals without proper testing—“biologic death bombs” in the air, water, and in our bodies. 瓦连纳托斯,在美国环境保护署工作了 25 年之后,揭开了掩盖真相的幕布,揭露这个监管机构的执法实践如何遭到持续侵蚀,背叛了其保护公众安全和监测土地利用的职责。 The EPA, through its Congressional mandate, enforces more than a dozen environmental laws, yet it has approved hundreds of pesticides that have been used unnecessarily, excessively, or which have been outright abused, the book contends. 美国环境保护署( EPA ),通过国会授权,强制执行一系列环境保护法规,然而正是 EPA 批准了原本不必要或者从一开始滥用的数百种农药,这本书说。 Vallianatos does give the agency credit for the hard-fought ban on DDT that was opposed by the chemical companies and pesticide apologists. 瓦连纳托斯对 EPA 争取到遭到化学公司与农药辩护者反对禁绝 DDT 的斗争给与肯定。 He also explores the causes of the dwindling honeybee population and the loss of the traditional family farms to the aggressive corporate giants, as well as the repression of EPA whistleblowers squashed by a code of silence and lack of access to information. 瓦连纳托斯还探索了蜜蜂群减少与传统家庭农场急剧减少的根源,认为侵略性公司巨头是罪魁,其他原因包括环境保护署压抑的环境、举报者被沉默以及有关信息被掩盖无法接触。 The authors tout healthier living through small, nontoxic family farms while delivering an alarming, comprehensive account of a “fatally compromised” EPA mission crippled by bad enforcement practices and numerous corrupting influences. (Apr.) 两位作者通过不使用毒性农药的小规模家庭农场的实力宣传健康的生活方式,同时揭露遭到惊人、全面 “ 致命的损害 ” 的环境保护署败坏的执法实践及其大量腐蚀性影响。 KIRKUS REVIEW 《 KIRKUS 评论》书评 https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/eg-vallianatos/poison-spring/ “We spend our lives living in a chemical soup,” writes Vallianatos ( This Land Is Their Land: How Corporate Farms Threaten the World , 2006, etc.), who was a risk evaluator for the Environment Protection Agency from 1979 to 2004. “ 我们终身生活在化学毒汤中 ” , 瓦连纳托斯写道,他从 1979 年到 2004 年在美国环境保护署( EPA )担任风险评估科学家工作,著有《这个土地是他们的土地:工业化公司农场如何威胁世界》( 2006 )等著作。 With Jenkins (Journalism/Univ. of Delaware; What’s Gotten Into Us: Staying Healthy in a Toxic World , 2011), he excoriates the agency for routinely yielding to outside pressure in regulating pesticides and other environmental pollutants. 与詹金斯一起谴责美国环境保护署在杀虫剂和其他环境污染物监管中不断屈服外界压力。(詹金斯:新闻学 / 特拉华大学; 2011 年出版《什么进入了我们体内:在毒性世界保持健康》) Founded in 1970, the EPA inherited Department of Agriculture personnel who brought their enthusiasm for chemical farming. Dedicated scientists arrived, but their findings are never the last word. That belongs to their superiors, who weigh evidence of an agent’s toxicity against industry spokesmen and fierce opposition of administration and Congress to “burdensome government regulation” and “attacks on the farmer.” 1970 年建立的环境保护署,继承了原先农业部热衷于化学农业的一批人员。也吸收了一批专业的科学家,但是他们发现的问题在决策中得不到体现。做出决策的是他们的上级,他们将揭露产业界发言人的化学制剂毒性的证据,以及政府管理部门与国会激烈的反对,视为 “ 繁重的政府监管 ” 与 “ 对农民的攻击 ” 。 The authors recite a depressing litany of poisons approved despite damning, inadequate or fraudulent testing—and often no testing at all. 作者列举一系列令人沮丧的实际是毒药的化学品尽管遭到咒骂依然获得环境保护署批准,对它们的试验不仅不足或进行了欺骗性的试验 -- 甚至往往根本没有进行任何测试。 EPA whistle-blowers, always portrayed as heroes, are usually ignored, demoted or fired. 美国环境保护署的举报者,往往被民众描绘为英雄,通常遭到忽略、降职或解职。 Although President Ronald Reagan’s effort to abolish the EPA failed, he weakened it dramatically. Abolition remains the goal of many Republicans, while Democrats oppose this plan. 尽管罗纳德 · 里根总统废止环境保护署的努力遭到失败,他依然严重削弱了它。废止环境保护署始终成为许多共和党人的目标,民主党人则反对这样的计划。 However, Democratic presidents, Barack Obama included, have proven a disappointment. Sadly, a minority of environmentalists excepted, Americans rarely pester their representatives about this subject or contribute to their campaigns. Agribusinesses and chemical manufacturers do both. 然而,民主党的总统,包括巴拉克 · 奥巴马,一直表明对环境保护署的不满。不幸的是,除了少数环保主义者之外,美国人很少纠缠他们的议会代表对这个主题或他们推动环境保护的运动予以重视。 Even an impartial EPA official—rare in this damning indictment—hears mostly one side of an argument. 甚至一位公正负责任的环境保护署官员在绝大部分情况下只能听到争议事件单方面的意见 -- 强烈控诉中这极为罕见。 In the obligatory how-to-fix-it conclusion, Vallianatos and Jenkins suggest that the EPA should be run like the Food and Drug Administration and Federal Reserve—by experts, not political appointees. This is not likely. 探讨如何解决问题的结论章节中 瓦连纳托斯与詹金斯提议,美国环境保护署应当像食品药物管理署与联邦储备银行那样运行 -- 由专家,而非政治性指派者管理。尽管这不大可能实现。 Readers of this overheated but often on-the-mark polemic will conclude that the safest tactic is organic food and a fly swatter. 这场过热但往往有的放矢论证的读者们会结论,最安全的策略是有机食品和准备一个苍蝇拍。
Pesticides bring a silent spring Updated: 2011-10-19 07:51 By Yang Wanli (China Daily) http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2011-10/19/content_23664425.htm Print Mail Large Medium Small 0 Fan Jiude cares for the cucumbers in his greenhouse that bring in 40,000 to 50,000 yuan every year. Photos by Zou Hong / China Daily Top above: Fertilizers and other farm chemicals are available in this small store in Shouguang, Shandong. Above: A tester checks a Nanfan cucumber for chemical residue. According to protocols, he should be wearing gloves. Photos by Zou Hong / China Daily Overuse of chemicals in farming raises concerns about food on our table, Yang Wanli reports from Yunnan and Shandong provinces. It seems incredible that farmers would shun the vegetables they send to the cities. But that is the case in Xundian where 100 hectares of greenhouses provide vegetables for Kunming, about 50 kilometers away. Farmers next door will not eat them due to health concerns. "Chemicals and fertilizers are widely used. We have to use them to grow bigger and more beautiful vegetables to meet market demand," local farmer He Chengliang said. "But we only eat those grown in our courtyard without the use of chemicals. The variety may be limited but they are safe and healthy." It's not just that farmers use chemicals to control insects and boost the growth of plants and vegetables. It's that they are overusing them, far more than farmers in other countries. The government has taken steps to tackle the problem. It has banned or limited the use of highly toxic chemicals, and promoted better agricultural practices. The use of chemicals has been fed largely by economics. He, 54, has grown vegetables for more than 30 years in Southwest China's Yunnan province. Most villagers no longer raise livestock, he said, so they have no ready manure. Buying it costs more than chemical fertilizer, and without pesticides, farmers would need to hire more people to kill pests for smaller harvests. "Traditional ways of farming will raise the cost and can hardly meet the increasing demand from urban areas," He said. "If no chemicals are used, most urban people could not afford the vegetables." Not just in Yunnan Use of pesticides grew nationwide from about 700,000 tons in 1990 to 1.7 million tons (about 30 kg a hectare) in 2008, said Jiang Gaoming, an Institute of Botany researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Average use of pesticides per hectare in China is three to five times higher than in most other countries, according to a report by the National Business Daily in June. And nearly 90 million hectares of crops are polluted every year. Caijing magazine reported in September that the use of chemical fertilizer throughout China in the 1950s was 10,000 tons a year. By 2007, it was 51 million tons. Agriculture Vice-Minister Wei Chao'an said at a national conference in July that China's consumption of chemical fertilizer constitutes 35 percent of global market share, equal to the US and India combined. " We've got many problems . . . that will not only threaten our health, but also harm the farmland," Jiang said. Overuse of fertilizer "will cause the soil to pack together". It can kill earthworms and other organisms that aerate soil and contribute to fertility. 'Good business' Global sales of farm chemicals hit $45 billion in 2009 and are expected to reach $52 billion in 2014, according to the Freedonia Group, an international business research firm. China has become one of the biggest players - as both producer and consumer. In 2009, it made more than 2 million tons of farm chemicals, exporting 800,000 tons. Organic (synthetic) pesticides have been widely used worldwide since the 1940s and still take the major market share. Low-toxicity - and expensive - biological pesticides account for 1 percent of sales in China. Liu Xiulian, 54, has sold pesticides and chemical fertilizer in Zibo, East China's Shandong province, since 1996. She owns a family store covering about 20 square meters. Liu said pesticides sell well during the busy season, May to August, but the business supports her family of four year-round. "Every family is using farm chemicals. It's a good business," she said. "Compared with doing city jobs for 40 or 50 yuan a day, we don't need to go out while selling farm chemicals, which is easy and earns more." Strict limits "I don't think farm chemicals are as horrible as some people believe," said Pan Canping, director of the Agriculture Ministry's Quality Testing and Inspection Center for Agricultural Products. Severe insect and plant disease infestations afflict roughly 60 percent of cultivated land in China, Pan said. He estimated that farm chemicals save 58 million tons of grains, 1.5 tons of cotton, 50 million tons of vegetables and 6 million tons of fruit every year. Pan said Chinese agriculture is moving toward a healthier, environmentally friendly development. Use of highly toxic and hypertoxic agricultural chemicals is forbidden for insect control, and they cannot be applied to vegetables, melons, fruits, tea, and herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine. The regulations were issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1997. Farm chemicals must be registered before they can be sold. By the end of last year, the ministry had approved registration for 600 farm chemicals marketed under 14,000 brands. After evaluation by the ministry, changes in the "maximum use" labeling - sometimes allowing stronger solutions, sometimes weaker - were required for 200 chemicals. The ministry plans to regulate 7,000 other kinds of farm chemicals, completing those most commonly used, within five years. Important interval For modern agriculture, chemicals including fertilizers seem to be unavoidable not only in China but also in other countries. But their potential for harm can be mitigated by generally agreed-upon good agricultural practices (GAP). Practices vary by jurisdiction, but China's GAP took effect in May 2006. The principles are broadly outlined for the farm level in 10 areas, including crop and fodder production, harvest and on-farm processing and storage. The common theme is that all possible measures must be taken to prevent food-borne disease as fresh produce moves through production and distribution systems. For example: To extend their effectiveness, some pesticides contain chemicals that keep them from easily being washed away by rain. It takes time for those chemicals to break down into harmless compounds, so it's important to use minimal amounts and to allow sufficient time to elapse between the last application and harvest. "We called it the pre-harvest interval, which is an important part of GAP," said Pan, the quality testing and inspection director. "Only by following GAP strictly can we enjoy safe agriculture products." Pan said more than 96 percent of vegetables in China meet safety standards for chemical residue. Those that do not result from failure to follow GAP principles. "The problem not only exists in China, but also in advanced countries," he said. Daily tests Shouguang, in Shandong, is the "vegetable city" of China. About 60 percent of its cultivated land is devoted to growing vegetables, and it produces about 4 billion kg of them each year. It also has taken the lead in promoting safer farming by cracking down when tests show that residues of farm chemicals exceed 50 percent. Levels above that amount indicate that either too much was used or the chemicals were applied too close to harvest. "Almost all villages in Shouguang have a testing office and technicians will do the test every day," said Fan Quande, the Nanfan village chief. "If any hypertoxic chemicals are found on vegetables, the whole plastic greenhouse should be destroyed and farmers who grow those vegetables will be detained." In fact, he said, 10 greenhouses were destroyed and six farmers in the village were punished in the past two or three years. Nanfan village has about 400 families and each owns a greenhouse that covers about 1,000 square meters. Fan Jiude, 46, grows cucumbers that bring his family 40,000 to 50,000 yuan a year, he said. "In recent years, no highly toxic pesticides have been sold in the market and we dare not use them because of the severe punishment," he said. Fan, who has grown vegetables for more than 25 years, knows about other risks. "The hypertoxic pesticides are so strong that once I was poisoned in the greenhouse, just because I wiped away sweat after spraying without washing my hands. It made me throw up and I stayed in a hospital for three days." According to the most recent statistics available from the Ministry of Health, more than 17,000 pesticide poisoning cases in rural areas were reported in 2000, and more than 1,000 people died. About a quarter of the poisoning cases happened during farmwork. Leak in the system In Fan Jiude's greenhouse, some small plastic bags lay on the ground, empty containers for chemical fertilizer he uses to make his cucumbers grow larger. The instructions on the back of the bag said the contents should be diluted 1:15 - one part fertilizer to 15 parts water. Fan said he uses only 10 parts water. In the village's agricultural testing office, the man conducting the tests is supposed to wear gloves and use tweezers when he cuts rind from a cucumber to test for chemical residue. He had neither but, when prodded by the village chief, used scissors instead of tweezers. But he said he does wash containers after each sample is tested and uses distilled water - both parts of the protocol - so the results can be trusted. "That's where the problem is," said Jiang, the botany researcher. "Public sectors are speeding up to build a safe system, but the effect still lags behind. It takes time to educate farmers and to run the system well in the grassroots units." Sun Jingbo and Wang Jing contributed to this report.