“We have prided ourselves of an ordinance that bans smoking in roofed areas of this city, realizing the dangers of second hand smoking to non-smokers. On the other hand, the continued use of this spray method reaches places even far from banana plantations, thereby contaminating with fungicides the air we breathe,” the statement from 17 groups of different sectors and faiths, said.
“Majority of the banana industries in Davao City practice aerial spraying to control Sigatoka disease. However, pesticides in the air drift up to more than three kilometers from the treatment site thereby contaminating soil, open bodies of water, other animals and human environs in the process,” said the statement of Ananda Marga, Babas Foundation (BFI), Bantay Kabuhayan at Kalikasan (BAKKAL), Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), Foods Not Bombs Collective, Interface Development Interventions, Inc. (IDIS), Kinaiyahan Amumahon ug Bantayan Movement (KAUBAN), Kinaiyahan Unahon Movement, Kalitawhan Working Group on Biodiversity, Kolos Neng Bi Libo, Panaghoy sa Kinaiyahan-Coalition for Mother Earth (Panaghoy), Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spray (MAAS), Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG), For the Upliftment of the Moral, Economic, Technological, Socio-Cultural Aspirations of Men and Women (METSA), Sonshine Philippines Movement (SPM), The Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name Church and Youth Advocates for Watershed (YaH2O).
The groups said the vegetative buffer zones from the plantation to the schools, rivers, public roads and houses which are supposed to minimize the ill effects of the drift “have not been properly complied with” and that “public information on the aerial spraying activity to warn people of its danger is inadequate.”
“Meanwhile, communities surrounding the plantations complain of the nasty smell of the pesticides, itching, stinging in the eyes, suffocation, weakness, asthma, allergies and nausea as a result of the spray. These same people have nowhere to run, and are situated there because of the lack of economic choices. Aerial spraying then is tantamount to dousing them and their limited resources with poison,” the groups said.
Representatives from these groups will picket the City Council on Tuesday in support of the proposed city ordinance “banning aerial spray practices and providing mechanism for its gradual phase out in agribusiness practices within the territorial jurisdiction of Davao City and prescribing guidelines thereof.”
The groups said the current “unsustainable farming practices such as aerial spraying of banana plantations have threatened not only our health, air, water and soils, but also the livelihood of some of us. If this practice continues, we could not provide our children a healthy environment that they truly deserve.”
In its position paper dated January 25 this year, the Interface Development Interventions (IDIS), a non-governmental organization working for the protection of the upland watersheds in the city noted that “studies in banana-producing countries show that of the fungicides applied through air, about 40 times during each cultivation cycle, 15% is lost to wind drift and falls outside the plantation, 40% ends up on soil rather than on the plants, and about 35% is washed off by rain totaling to a 90% loss.”
It added that based on the estimates of the Escuela de Agriculturade la Region Tropical Humeda (EARTH) as cited in De Leon and Escobido’s “The Banana Export Industry and Agrarian Reform” study in 2004, 90% of the fungicide sprayed “ends up in the soils, waters, crops, animals and even human beings surrounding the treatment site which are not supposed to be the target of the spraying.” (MindaNews)
Posted by proutist-universal on June 14, 2006 11:22 PM | TrackBack
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |