29 Comments

I heard once this, I don't remember where or who said it: every time you find the word "sustainable" read instead "profitable" and you will understand the esoteric meaning of the text or the speech.

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A lot of the valid concern about pesticides (synthetic or otherwise) can’t be addressed rationally because we’re simultaneously making agriculture something only big businesses can undertake.

The same government being unrealistic about pesticides is also bearing down on ordinary people farming on a small scale.

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No one is ending agriculture silly, they’re just ending *farmers* .

Silly Billy !

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Mar 8Liked by William M Briggs

I remember a botany class I had where I learned that black peper can be carcinogenic. But you have to ingest about two pounds of black paper a day.

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Mar 8Liked by William M Briggs

Once again, anti-human proposals are cloaked in concern for “Mother Earth”. Our elected officials and their bureaucratic minions look to destroy what they are elected (or hired) to protect, the people.

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Mar 8Liked by William M Briggs

The trouble begins in the first paragraph which reminds us that the EU parliament is no parliament at all, being powerless to initiate legislation. Add to that a commission unelected and untalented-the members are frequently recycled failures from national politics-and we naturally get a dismal result: the senseless exercise of power for its own sake. Nothing new in Europe of course, but at least in former times a higher civilisation could direct folly into something interesting and even beautiful, cf Ludwig of Bavaria for a method in madness.

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Very interesting.

So it appears that purchasing organic fruits/vegetables is a pointless endeavor.

If the author (or someone else knowledgeable about this) is lurking around the comments section, what are your views about purchasing animal products raised without hormones or antibiotics?

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Mar 8Liked by William M Briggs

Brilliant, clear, and memorable takedown of the insane EU plan for pesticides. Thank you. The dose determines the poison is especially useful.

The hypocrisy of tyrants is revealed yet again as there are no cries among them to “follow the science.” They either don’t know the scientific principles at play here, or do know them but are purposefully avoiding them to get their “feel good about myself” legislation passed.

A pox on all their houses.

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“Keep in mind that most synthetic pesticides in use today are organic molecules that over time break down in the environment and on food. That makes the use of copper as a pesticide hugely ironic.” <- Truth bomb

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Mar 8Liked by William M Briggs

The EU itself banned many perfectly good chemicals in 2013 with its Biocidal Products Regulation, which required tens of thousands of euros to be spent on paperwork to demonstrate that a substance was safe, something that the private sector mostly wasn't prepared to do for substances that were unpatentable or low-margin. An example is ammonium sulphamate, formerly used by organic gardeners as a potent but rapidly-degrading weedkiller, and still available as a compost activator. Even somebody who puts coconut oil on their skin to repel insects is technically in breach of the Regulation.

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“He or she who protests shall be starved or poisoned from the earth… “

The Book of Elite…

See Ireland. If you can’t beat em, starve em.

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Mar 8Liked by William M Briggs

What nonsense. The German word for rose is Dornenquälgewächs. Or Bumsblume if you’re feeling amorous.

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How many of these technocrats have any level of scientific knowledge?

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Very stupid Eurocrats deciding things for us again.

It's the same as legislating morality: You can't just sign a law that says to be moral if your people are all low trust immigrant hordes and single mom raised hellions. They want the fruit without the tree, so to speak. They want the end result of hard work, intelligence, productivity without the managerial responsibility to run the system of society well.

It -is- possible to have crop yields that use very little pesticides but the problem is that the entire base of logistics leading up to it has been destroyed by these same governments. Industrial agriculture and pesticide use are practically synonyms. The have kneecapped everyone else but industrial agriculturalists, hooked themselves up with the veins of industrial agriculturalists with an IV, and now are saying they want to cut it off suddenly? Petulant children.

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For a deep dive into the topic i recommend the blog of David Zaruk, the Risk-Monger. He's been writing about this topic in depth for years... There's a few quite interesting series of articles that detail how the political machine works that produces these regulations.

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