Checking the microcystins levels on the Ohio EPA website shows the beginning climb of the levels. On April 8 the microcystins levels were 6.8ppb and in just ten days later it has risen to 26.8ppb. The toxins levels have increased four times in just ten days.
Grand Lake St. Marys is the only testing site in Ohio with a microcystins levels over 20 ppb. If you are wondering how the toxin levels in GLSM can increase so much so quickly, it's because manure dumping has started.
I recently had a farmer to complain to me that their manure pits were practically overflowing because the weather had not allowed them to get into their fields to spread the manure. I suggested that he have his manure pit pumped out and moved to an area that needed manure. He stated, "That's not free."
His argument is typical for many of the agribusiness owners in our watershed. The Farm Bill is the largest welfare program in our country. What privately owned business gets the financial breaks that farmers get? Much of their buildings are paid for by the federal government; they get sales tax and property tax relief; if their business fails due to weather, the government subsidizes it; and they don't pay for waste disposal, etc. Why is this? Agribusiness will tell you it is because we like to eat cheap food. Sure who doesn't like cheap food.
Agribusiness in the U.S. is the largest growing health threat to our country not unlike smoking cigarettes of the past. Agribusiness in their drive to make more profits, they are poisoning our food supply with growth hormones and antibiotics. Many countries in the world will not allow American raised meat products in their countries because it is so tainted with pharmaceuticals. A good example of this impact is the growing problem of obesity and its many related health problems.
So, our neighboring agribusiness owners are not only poisoning our lake but the meat we eat. Where is their convictions to doing the right thing for their community? In many areas around the country, farmers have come to the table to solve the ecological disasters they have created but not in the Grand Lake St. Marys communities. These farmers could care less that they have cost their neighbors over $200million in property value loss. They could care less that they have turned a state park lake of historical significance into their personal cesspool costing their community millions of dollars. So why should any of us care about their future viability, especially since they are only 1% of the economic sector in the watershed. The residents in the watershed should be demanding that something be done.
We can begin by NOT electing farmers to our city councils and county board of supervisors.
Grand Lake St. Marys is the only testing site in Ohio with a microcystins levels over 20 ppb. If you are wondering how the toxin levels in GLSM can increase so much so quickly, it's because manure dumping has started.
I recently had a farmer to complain to me that their manure pits were practically overflowing because the weather had not allowed them to get into their fields to spread the manure. I suggested that he have his manure pit pumped out and moved to an area that needed manure. He stated, "That's not free."
His argument is typical for many of the agribusiness owners in our watershed. The Farm Bill is the largest welfare program in our country. What privately owned business gets the financial breaks that farmers get? Much of their buildings are paid for by the federal government; they get sales tax and property tax relief; if their business fails due to weather, the government subsidizes it; and they don't pay for waste disposal, etc. Why is this? Agribusiness will tell you it is because we like to eat cheap food. Sure who doesn't like cheap food.
Agribusiness in the U.S. is the largest growing health threat to our country not unlike smoking cigarettes of the past. Agribusiness in their drive to make more profits, they are poisoning our food supply with growth hormones and antibiotics. Many countries in the world will not allow American raised meat products in their countries because it is so tainted with pharmaceuticals. A good example of this impact is the growing problem of obesity and its many related health problems.
So, our neighboring agribusiness owners are not only poisoning our lake but the meat we eat. Where is their convictions to doing the right thing for their community? In many areas around the country, farmers have come to the table to solve the ecological disasters they have created but not in the Grand Lake St. Marys communities. These farmers could care less that they have cost their neighbors over $200million in property value loss. They could care less that they have turned a state park lake of historical significance into their personal cesspool costing their community millions of dollars. So why should any of us care about their future viability, especially since they are only 1% of the economic sector in the watershed. The residents in the watershed should be demanding that something be done.
We can begin by NOT electing farmers to our city councils and county board of supervisors.