“And the glyphosate keeps marching on”
To the Expositor:
I was encouraged to read about the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Elders pushing back about aerial glyphosate spraying in The Expositor August 21 edition. However, this optimism was short lived.
Since then, in just a week’s span, there have been three separate incidences exemplifying of how much this carcinogenic and ecologically destructive compound are still pervasive in our environment.
First, I had a lovely visit from my nephew. He has worked for a major nationwide reforestation (aka tree planting) company. Sounds completely positive. However, this industry has a dark side. The year before tree planters go into their various locations across Canada, these locations are aerial sprayed with glyphosate to kill off the deciduous trees that would compete with the ‘cash crop’ of coniferous trees. This is exactly what the TEK Elders are fighting and another gentleman, Joel Theriault, a Northern Ontario bush pilot, of “Stop the Spray.” Our northern forest locations literally get annual glyphosate rain.
Second, EMCOM, under the orders of our provincial MTO, sprayed the ditches of the east end of the Island with a glyphosate compound. Of particular note, I noticed all the plastic ‘pesticide’ signs located right around Big Lake and near an Amish garden plot. Interestingly, this stretch of Hwy 542 was not marked on their map when asked to have access to it several times (and only receiving it via another concerned taxpayer). Take note: The same company will be repeating another round of glyphosate spray in our ditches in another one to two weeks. However, transparency and forthcoming information from both EMCOM and the MTO is rather difficult. Again, this is our taxpaying dollars that is funding the wide dispersement of these chemicals that simply do not degrade in a day (soil half-life is from 2-197 days and water half-life is 2-91 days).
Third, after I personally suffered devastating bee colony losses last year and confirmed glyphosate to be the agent, the agricultural side of Manitoulin has begun their late summer round of glyphosate spray. This again is being done to hayfields to ‘refresh’ their yields as GMO/Round Up Ready alfalfa will be planted, and for the dry-down (or desiccation) of the cash crops such as soybean, corn, and canola prior to harvest. No ‘pesticide’ signs will ever be posted, and it is only through friendly farmer neighbours that one is alerted. My bees that survived last year will be exposed again and it remains to be seen if I will sustain another loss like last year. My bees, being somewhat domesticated and studied, are a reflection of the wild pollinators, and it was this week noted in a headline reported in EcoWatch, ‘Global Food Production Limited by Lack of Pollinators Is ‘Cause for Concern and Optimism,’ Researchers Say.’ Just take a quick look at a satellite view of Google Earth of Southern Ontario and take a note of the farmland…that you can bet is a massive chemical pea soup…and it’s happening here now too on Manitoulin.
As TEK elder Raymond Owl stated, “the time for meetings has come and gone. Action is required to protect the forest for future generations.” Raymond Owl, who I may add was featured in a CBC documentary in 2022 titled ‘Into The Weeds,’ a powerful story of a former California Bay Area groundskeeper who took on Monsanto after a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Two years later and countless research articles supporting how these ‘chemicals’ are ‘cidal’ for many species, and what are we doing? What can we do? First, demand that our governments do not spend our taxpayer dollars on these compounds. Contact your MPP, contact the MTO and EMCOM, support groups like “Stop the Spray” on Facebook, support the TEK Elders, ask that retail shops do not carry these compounds. Wiikwemkoong has banned glyphosate altogether from their territory. It can be done. Second, demand and support for more organic products…use your money to push your vote. If we all went out today, and insisted on and purchased organic grains including flour and oats, dairy, vegetables, fruit….the money behind this grinding machine would slow and preferably halt, and your personal health and health of the ecosystem would improve. And for all those who think “NIMBY” (or not in my backyard), when one considers the massive farmland development in the south and now happening here, the boreal forests, the roadside ditches, the neighbours who innocently want rid of poison ivy or dandelions….the cumulative effect of these compounds is completely unknown. But the ‘silent springs’ are slowly happening and it is for up to each of us to decide which direction we wish to go.
Janice Mitchell
Tehkummah
