Something’s Poisoning America’s Land. Farmers Fear ‘Forever Chemicals.’
www.nytimes.com
Fertilizer made from city sewage has been spread on millions of acres of farmland for decades. Scientists say it can contain high levels of the toxic substance.

For decades, farmers across America have been encouraged by the federal government to spread municipal sewage on millions of acres of farmland as fertilizer. It was rich in nutrients, and it helped keep the sludge out of landfills.

But a growing body of research shows that this black sludge, made from the sewage that flows from homes and factories, can contain heavy concentrations of chemicals thought to increase the risk of certain types of cancer and to cause birth defects and developmental delays in children.

Known as “forever chemicals” because of their longevity, these toxic contaminants are now being detected, sometimes at high levels, on farmland across the country, including in Texas, Maine, Michigan, New York and Tennessee. In some cases the chemicals are suspected of sickening or killing livestock and are turning up in produce. Farmers are beginning to fear for their own health.

The national scale of farmland contamination by these chemicals — which are used in everything from microwave popcorn bags and firefighting gear to nonstick pans and stain-resistant carpets — is only now starting to become apparent.

https://archive.ph/8rNG6

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  • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    What the fuck happened to humanity that we got to the point where people are now arguing that certain levels of pollution is very acceptable because of the economy?

    Of course only in your backyard but not mine

    And “the economy” is just corpo speak for “makes me and my buddies and some politicians a boat load of money”

    The only acceptable level of pollution coming out of any factory should be “less than before”. All factories should be required to leave everything behind cleaner than they found it, period.

    This, of course, is doable (almost anything is, really) but will never happen because politicians don’t give a shit. They care about their own reelection (a behavior that should also be outlawed) and anything that doesn’t make people happy short term is irrelevant.

    We need politicians that will tell us that our power bill will go up, unfortunately, because we’re spending way WAY to much energy trivially on bullshit, and we need half of ALL our (purely enewable) energy to start pulling CO2 out of the air for the next century if we want to survive as a species. That is a shitty take but it’s also the realistic take. We’re not going to make it unless we start spending a LOT of resources on fixing our environment.

    We need politicians that will propose a maximum acceptable wealth level. Income taxes must be zero for the poorest, some 30-ish percent for the middle class, and after the middle class, income taxes should quickly rise to the max income limit where it becomes 100%. Same goes for existing wealth. Nobody call give me a single good reason why someone should have the right to a net worth of more than, say, 10 million dollars while there are still people out there starving or homeless because you want to have your second mega yacht.

    We need politicians that will limit the sizes that companies are allowed to grow to. I think 1000 is reasonable. Need more output? Have ten similar companies produce more than ten times the output of a single company that is ten times bigger. There is no reason why companies should have 200.000 employees and you KNOW that those employees are mere numbers that will be thrown to the garbage once it suits a tiny few. Give me ten thousand small companies over one mega corp any day. Large corporations WILL abuse everything, they WILL abuse taxes, they will abuse employees, they will abuse the environment. Fuck. That. Shit. Similarly, company ney worths should be strictly limited as well.

    we need politicians that will require people with large amounts of followers to speak truthfully. If they proven don’t, jail them and keep jailing them longer for each subsequent offence. Just. Stop. Lying. These conspiracy theorists mostly only exists because we allowed them. That guy that knowingly cheated with his research about vaccines causing autism got fired. Why isn’t he jailed for life? He directly caused millions to suffer and at least thousands to die. The guy should be lined up and shot if it weren’t that governments should not murder citizens, so yeah, jail him for life, it should be the consequence for the action that caused so much death and suffering.

    And just to clarify the last one: I’m not advocating jailing people for misspeaking. I’m talking about the fox newses, the trump, the populist politicians who continuously lie. I’m talking about the iraqui general saying they’re winning with American tranks literally rolling in in the background. I’m talking Joe Rogan, who just sold his soul to the devil to spout and amplify the lies of hundreds causing so much shit. Fuck. That. Shit.