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EARTH ACTION
81 Prince Street Charlottetown PEI C1A 4R3 Tel: 902-621-0719 Email:
slabchuk@isn.net
MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 1999
Charlottetown - The province's plan to establish an Action Committee in
response to the recent rash of fishkills completely misses the point and
ignores the larger issue says Earth Action's pesticide campaigner Sharon
Labchuk.
"We thought these fishkill disasters might be a wake-up call to the Binns
government and the potato industry. This isn't just about fish. We have a
widespread problem with pesticides affecting all living things on PEI,
including humans. The fish are like the canaries in the coal mine. We
ignore the bigger issue at our own peril," says Labchuk. "Yes, we need to
implement emergency measures, which at best can only help reduce the
frequency of fishkills, but government and industry have made no admission
of the need for a new vision for PEI agriculture - one that doesn't involve
the use of poisons."
Marine scientist Dr Irene Novaczek, fisheries campaigner for Earth Action,
states, "Fish kills often go undetected, as do sublethal effects such as
impaired reproduction, altered behavioural patterns and accumulation of
toxic residues in shellfish. For example, endosulfan, commonly used on PEI
and implicated in the Souris fishkill, is known to accumulate in shellfish.
The carnage we have seen in Island streams these past weeks is just an
indicator of the larger and more long-term environmental degradation
associated with industrial agriculture and dependence on chemical pesticides."
Earth Action says members of the new Action Committee are all supportive of
the industrial model of agriculture. "One member is a pesticide salesman
and representative of the pesticide industry's public relations arm.
Another is the head of the PEI Federation of Agriculture who was reported
in the Journal-Pioneer as saying all the blame farmers were getting for
fishkills was "getting a little tiresome," says Labchuk. " We can expect
nothing progressive to come from this committee."
Labchuk says some tightly regulated European countries have recognized that
even strict legislation cannot prevent harm from the legal, routine use of
pesticides and these countries are studying the possibility of switching to
organic agriculture. She says markets for organic food are growing by 20%
every year in the United States and that polls show, given a choice, people
prefer organically-grown food.
"If these pesticides are capable of killing fish in minute quantities, just
what do people think is happening when their children inhale toxic spray
drift or play on the grass near potato fields? It's time to get serious
about this issue and stop the endless charade of committees and round
tables that only support industrial agriculture by not asking the deeper
questions," says Labchuk.
- 30 -
Contact: Sharon Labchuk at 621-0719
********************************
Sharon Labchuk
Earth Action
81 Prince Street
Charlottetown, PEI C1A 4R3
Phone: 902-368-7337 / 621-0719
Fax: 902-621-0719
slabchuk@isn.net
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