More fish kills - Ghiz government a disappointment
GREEN PARTY OF PEI
More fish kills - Ghiz government a disappointment
Millvale- Continued fish kills and contaminated drinking water show the Ghiz government is just as unmotivated as the previous Conservative government to protect the environment and Islanders' health from the agriculture industry's decades-long chemical assault, charges the Green Party of Prince Edward Island.
"The Liberals are a huge disappointment to people who thought a change in government might bring fresh ideas and renewed interest in stopping the massive agricultural chemical problems PEI has endured for so long," said Green Party leader Sharon Labchuk. "But Premier Ghiz signaled his intentions quite clearly when he made George Webster, one of the Island's bigger potato producers, Minister of Environment, and then created a new position within the Department of Agriculture to support the potato industry."
Until government understands that problems caused by industrial agriculture must be looked at from a holistic perspective, nothing will change said Labchuk. Creating committees to study the individual effects of industrial agriculture - like nitrate pollution, fish kills and soil erosion - give the illusion of government action but the problems are interconnected and cannot be solved one by one.
"It's pointless to spend taxpayers money to study ways to reduce nitrates in rivers when massive quantities of chemical pesticides are required by potatoes grown on an industrial scale", said Labchuk. " Every Islander inhales cancer-causing potato pesticides for 5 or 6 months of the year and there is no solution to this problem except to shift to organic agriculture. This would solve many problems with dead fish and other wildlife, soil erosion, contaminated drinking water, cancer, learning disabilities and other very serious human health effects."
Labchuk said the Ghiz government's proposal to reduce nitrates in rivers and drinking water to tolerable levels is a sham as there is no science to prove any unnatural level of nitrate is safe.
"The natural background level of nitrates in PEI drinking water is close to zero - anything higher than 1 milligram per litre is pollution. Except for certain point sources of nitrates, like leaking septic tanks or a manure piles, almost all nitrate pollution in PEI is caused by agricultural fertilizers," said Labchuk. "Scientists are beginning to study the effects of nitrates on human and animal health below the supposed safe level of 10 milligrams per litre and the results are worrisome. With virtually every Islander forced to drink nitrate-polluted water and breathe pesticide-contaminated air you would think this would be a priority for any government but in PEI protecting the potato industry always comes first."
With the fossil fuel age drawing to a close, the Green Party would implement a plan to shift agriculture from dependence on fossil fuel inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides to organic agriculture. The shift is critical to ensure a supply of safe, locally produced food, to end the tragic human health and environmental effects of agrochemical use and to protect the economy from upheaval as fossil fuel prices continue to escalate.
Contact: Sharon Labchuk 902-621-0719 or 902-940-1262