olpea, what you say makes 100% sense. Now that you mention it I do remember on several occasions my chemical supplier offhandidly mentioning that my order comes from the specialty section. I never put much thought into it until reading your post. hman...first I want to thank you for bringing CPS to my attention. Opened an account with them today. 2 gallons of Tactic was my account opening order. Second....regarding studies and reports...I've worked for a major govt agency for 30+ years and have been involved in more studies than I can remember. Most studies are done by universities (this is what makes a study impressive and believable). Studies are very time consuming and expensive, this is where the govt comes in, the govt provides funding. The funding doesn't come out of thin air, it has to be approved or paid for by a senator or congressman (they have pork barrel slush fund accounts accounts for this), part of the funding usually is provided by a large business or business entity that has an interest in the reports outcome. As the report is being written it is sent to the reports sponsor for review, most likely the political sponsor doesn't have any knowledge of the subject matter so it is passed on to the business entity for their review and comments. At this point data is manipulated and wording is changed to favor the expected outcome. The report is then sent down the chain to the originating university where the appropriate changes are made. At this point the university has the option of rewriting the report as the reports political sponsor would like it to read or they can not change anything. Not changing anything can assure the university of not receiving any future govt funding. The report is almost 100% of the time rewritten with a specific outcome in mind. The, actual report/sponsor procedure is actually much harder to follow, I made it seem easy, it is purposely made difficult to follow. I'm telling you this from experience. Been there, done that. I didn't go back and reread the initial report mentioned here but I do remember looking at a reference on the bottom of the page that it was written by a university (Michigan??). I take university reports with a jaded grain of salt. Look at political polls and statistical studies, these are always geared toward a specific outcome by whomever is sponsoring (paying for) the poll....the way the question is asked, whom is asked, the way the numbers are presented etc... Look at the report, it took a product (Nu-Film 17) which had a good reputation but is produced by a relatively small chemical company (Miller) and basically said that Nu-Film didn't work but Tactic (a Loveland product, huge company) works much better. It would be interesting to see who was the reports sponsor...follow the money. I try to keep an open but jaded mind when it comes to reports and studies. From my own experience I have used Nu-Film for several years and can actually see it working as advertised, not saying that Tactic is better or worse just saying I'm keeping my mind open. I did purchase Tactic and will use it when I receive it. I don't have the money, time or resources to conduct a scientific study of Tactic but I will use it on about 50% of my orchard (30 trees) and do my own comparison.

Makers of organic products have an annoying lack of precision (like mixing imperial and metric units in the instructions -- "mix 25 ml per gallon" or "1 quart makes 100 litres") but I can deal with that. I like to talk about using, say, 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. Been saying this for years here on this forum. You can dilute as much as you want as long as you get 3 ounces in a 1,000 square foot area. I can convert to metric if you like. What is REALLY annoying is the lack of information about how often and how much to use, assuming you figured out how to mix it. I usually deal in lawns using ground grains as a fertilizer. The application rate, at least to start, is 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Corn meal has less protein than alfalfa, cottonseed, and soy, so you can really use a lot more corn meal without hurting anything. Soy should be used at the lower rate. And I always talk about fertilizing lawns on the major (USA) federal holidays (President's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving). So there's a rate and schedule that works. I wish the producers would have the sense to tell us these things, and ensure the instructions are clear and consistent. So I guess you really want all this information on the bag or bottle. I agree.

Wow! Those strawberries look delicious

Omigawd nagamaki! Just when you think you've heard everything! Thanks for mentioning Media Matters, Althea - I could not remember its name when I was posting those earlier links. (I actually have the video of JS's appearance on CF - somewhere.....it was right after TDS had won several Emmy awards & I'm guessing he felt his job was safe enough for him to be outspoken......?The other part that's quite amusing is JS's comments on TDS RE: his experience & the cancellation of CF.) Thanks to TDS, many people are getting info they wouldn't otherwise. Speaking of the EPA & the admin.'s dismissal of whistleblower cases - yesterday on AAR's Laura Flanders Show, I heard the guest (from PEER) cite 1 example of employees exposed to berillium(sp?) w/o their knowledge - it was heinous >= ( (& altho it's a separate subject, I'd like to mention that yesterday on Ring of Fire, there was a report on mercury, children & neurological damage & figures cited were quite disturbing :something like 1/6 children w/ some sort of neuro damage/disability???!!! & the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit - namely, discussion of the likely reason why there has been a legislative push to protect pharma companies from legal reprisals for damages from vaccines - & the recent passage of that bill RE: class action lawsuits.) There is a site, BTW that archives AAR programming......