Guthion is another one that will be sorely missed. Cherry growers really don't have much of a backup plan after it's phased out in the next few years. They have a zero tolerance threshold for cherry maggot (due to stringent requirements of exports, as I recall). None of the proposed replacements for Guthion work as effectively. Currently extension personnel are telling cherry growers to find solutions for maggot before Guthion is completely pulled, but are not really telling them how to do it. Growers are essentially left to themselves to try to figure out some spray program that will work with the current insecticides available. Not to be misunderstood, I think the EPA on the whole has done a good job removing older more dangerous chemistries and encouraging newer safer ones. Although I'm not in complete support for the ban on Guthion and Methyl Bromide (given the increased restrictions for its use i.e. increased buffer zones, monitoring of drift, notification of neighbors, etc) what I'm mostly opposed to is the knee-jerk reactions which seem to be taking place with neonicotinoids and the current bee crisis. As far as competitiveness of U.S. ag, the U.S. farmer has been able to compete w/ countries where labor is very cheap. Traditionally this has been done through automation. A combine running through a field at 10 acres/hr. can compete with a Chinaman harvesting the same field, no matter how little he's paid. Some of our crops are still labor intensive (I'm thinking of fruits here) but that is changing. Thinning and harvesting are in the early stages of becoming fully automated. When that happens, cost of labor will no longer be a factor, as is the case currently with field crops. I do think environmental regulation may tip the scale. Not that I'm against regulation, just that we need to recognize there is a fine balance between adequately protecting the environment and rendering our food growing sector non-competitive. Perhaps that sounds like a severe statement, but the uncomfortable truth is that huge yield increases (and thereby the abundant cheap food) we've enjoyed over the last 50 years are largely the result of synthetic fertilizer and effective pesticides. I'm not trying to start an organic vs. conventional debate, just explaining my rationale for claiming environmental regulation can have a pretty big impact. It would be unfortunate if regulation got so aggressive as to take us back to years where pests took a significant percentage of the crop.

I found this thread because I had a visit from a SITC officer with USDA this afternoon. First..he was a very nice man, and I learned a lot from him..so no complaints with a man just doing his job. He knocked on my door, showed his badge, then asked me if I had ordered "peanut seeds" from China on ebay? I had not, I had ordered "Jungle nut" seeds, from China on ebay, (last October)...I told the truth. He asked what happened to them , I told him I planted them this Spring, but only 1 came up..walked him out to the garden, showed him the row, with a marker that said jungle nuts, and my one little plant. To my surprise, he didn't take it, didn't ask me to pull it..said he would just give me a warning, and let it go? We had a long talk about importing things..I knew plant diseases could be spread through vegetative material, but not seeds..he taught me a lot. He also said that if I were deemed a persistent offender, I could be fined $5,000.00.......that got my attention! He said they were mostly interested in high volume buyers buying in bulk and spreading the seeds all over the country...I told him that usually I buy U.S. seeds, but that 2 days ago I ordered Brassica Juncea Zha Cai on ebay, from China, as I couldn't find a U.S. seller...and what to do now? He wrote down what I told him, gave me his business card...and honestly, I was so shook up after hearing 5K fine, I don't remember what he told me to do with the seeds..I will e-mail him and ask. During our conversation I told him there was an Australian seller selling the Juncea seeds, he said it was illegal to order seed from ANY foreign country including Canada. All I know is I'm done ordering seeds from other countries..I am obviously on somebody's list now, anyway. The USDA must have access to Ebay records somehow, because he had my name and address as well as name/address of seller in China. I truly didn't know it was illegal, and as I said, I buy U.S. seeds 99% of the time, anyway. Odd thing is, after he left I looked up my ebay order and realized that I had ordered a rare Chinese long bean(yard long) from that same seller only a month before I ordered the Jungle nuts. He never mentioned them? So...here I am with my one little Jungle nut plant..I hope I get a few nuts from it so I can plant my own seed next year..although they are much easier to get now in the U.S.

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......

Sheila, thank you for responding.Your loyalties to Justice and kindness etc. are for me included under the heading of God, that is, Justice and kindness/charity. Yet I don't doubt that there are some differences in the details of our thinking. Paul, I had expected the dialog to be political. That it has become, in part, a question of religion was a surprise. Ingrid, anyone who has ever worked for the federal government knows that what Hillary did with her Email server brings jail time. No excuses. The reason for such a severe penalty is because of the severe damage such behavior causes, that is, the death of American military and intelligence members as well as revealing classified state secrets. She was handling material of the highest classification. In addition there is sufficient evidence that her Email was indeed hacked. That she was exonerated by a politicized Justice Department does not rectify the situation. The most generous argument for not prosecuting her is that it could have destabilized the American electoral process, a significant consideration. In other, words her exoneration was not based on her innocence (because she was not innocent) but rather on practical considerations. Many of the men who wrote the Constitution were deists and the document reflects that. The framers of the Constitution were opposed to an established state religion, not opposed to God. The Constitution has provided wide enough scope for both atheists and those who believe in God to flourish. And now I will stop posting on this topic as I have said what I have to say. Cath