The Dandelion - Canada's Official Flower

[The Green Barbarian]

Not sure how many people saw this article:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/29 ... n-the-sun/

What I found interesting was Terence Corcoran's response. There have been so many lies told about pesticides by the enviro-nuts, leading panicky idiot municipal governments, including our own here in Kelowna, to make knee-jerk laws banning them. So what does that leave us? With billions of unkillable dandelions, from now on:

Terence Corcoran: The dandelion is the official flower of statism

So now the old “yellow flower” is a thing of horticultural attraction. This glorious news hit the front page of the National Post Monday in a report that portrayed the weedy dandelion as a reborn object of beauty and affection. No longer on the kill list, dandelions are flourishing across Canada, spreading across fields and lawns, golf courses and public parkland.

Unfortunately, the yellow dandelion flower has a half-life of about nine hours, after which it starts cranking out fluffy white seed carriers that scatter billions of future dandelions all over the urban nation, covering street meridians and every nook and cranny of every public and private space.

We are now doomed, as a country, to decades of exponential weed growth. We might as well make it the national flower now and get it over with.
And, oh how the green activists and environmental alliances must have loved that story. What an achievement, a great science con job, a brilliant bait-and-switch policy scam, and a model for future activism. It’s a con job the National Post story, brightly illustrated and with an upbeat headline (Dandelions finally get their day in the sun), failed to mention.

That dandelions are now spreading like weeds across Canada has its origins in a phony cancer scare. That it was (and is) a phony scare was confirmed again just last week when Ottawa, the Quebec government and Dow AgroSciences settled a lawsuit under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Dow AgroSciences had sued over Quebec government claims the pesticide 2,4-D, the key dandelion exterminator, was a health risk.

The settlement agreement, a victory for the company, includes a statement from the government of Quebec saying the pesticide 2,4-D does “not pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment” when used according to instructions. It is too late, however, to undo the damage at the municipal level.

Governments have long known that 2,4-D is safe, but they eventually caved in to activists, who for much of the last decade continued to portray the pesticide as a dangerous threat despite lack of any evidence. Since the health scare had no scientific base, activists turned the pesticide battle into a war on cosmetic pesticides as a “precautionary” move.

What is cosmetic pesticide use? In Ontario, it was defined as “non-essential” use, and non-essential turned out to be the individual homeowner’s view of what was esthetic. If you like weed-free lawns and parks, your tastes were deemed “non-essential.” At that point, the phony war on an alleged health and environmental risk was converted into a war on the esthetic standards of Canadians.

Ontario’s environmental commissioner, reviewing the pesticide ban, said that over time it should increase ecosystem resilience and promote a resurgence of natural pesticides. So far, no sign of that. On the other hand, the ban “will likely result, at least at first, in more weeds and pests in lawns and gardens.”

The commissioner agreed there was no science to justify the pesticide ban. It was, he said, a major shift in philosophy, away from science and into the realm of the superficial, the inconsequential and even the trivial. But never mind. In the end, he supported pesticide reduction “in all contexts,” including farming, where 99% of pesticides are used. Maybe, with the NAFTA agreement, Dow AgroServices has escaped the 2,4-D guillotine in agriculture.

In cities, however, the weed deed is done — at a price. If dandelions have found their day in the sun, it’s because dandelies found their way into policymaking. Celebrating seeming acceptance of the weeds as “flowers” is to celebrate the triumph of the politics of social and esthetic control by government. The dandelion is the official flower of statism.

Financial Post
[email protected]

http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/0 ... f-statism/

[wthwyt]

I in no way consider myself a enviro-nuts The Green Barbarian if can find less harmful way of removing a weed or pest, I do so.

[daria]

Pesticides are for lazy people anyway.

[The Green Barbarian]

I in no way consider myself a enviro-nuts The Green Barbarian if can find less harmful way of removing a weed or pest, I do so.

I don't consider you an enviro-nut either - and good for you - see you are exercising your right to do what you want to do with your free will and that's what this country is all about. What it isn't about is allowing certain fringe groups to spread lies and influence governments to adapt useless and needless laws. When Corcoran says that the dandelion is the flower of statism, he is absolutely right - the government is exerting unnecessary controls on our daily life, all based on total lies. I could say that this is exactly what is going on with the entire man-made global warming movement as well, but I'll just leave this about dandelions for now.

The big point is here - whenever you are told something is environmentally harmful - at least ask "why" and also ask to see proof. So many people I have talked to blather the party line about pesticides being harmful, yet have no proof whatsoever. The enviro-nuts have succeeded in making this complete lie, among other things, "conventional wisdom" - which is a powerful thing to circumvent once it has taken hold, kind of like dandelions.

[The Green Barbarian]

Pesticides are for lazy people anyway.

lazy people like farmers trying to grow the food we eat - shame on those guys.

[daria]

Pesticides are for lazy people anyway.

lazy people like farmers trying to grow the food we eat - shame on those guys.

Lazy farmers buying into the monoculture production promoted by Big Agri? Lazy farmers whose pesticide use leaches nutrients out of our soil, so that what should be naturally occurring vitamins and minerals have to be added in a synthetic form to processed foods? Yes, those lazy farmers.

[The Green Barbarian]

Pesticides are for lazy people anyway.

lazy people like farmers trying to grow the food we eat - shame on those guys.

Lazy farmers buying into the monoculture production promoted by Big Agri? Lazy farmers whose pesticide use leaches nutrients out of our soil, so that what should be naturally occurring vitamins and minerals have to be added in a synthetic form to processed foods? Yes, those lazy farmers.

I have a lot of family on the prairies who farm, and they'd howl at how crazy you sound. "Typical latte-sipping BC hippy nonsense" is about as polite a thing as they could probably muster as a response. I do laugh when I hear this kind of foolishness spouted by BC residents who have never farmed or probably really worked any manual labour in their lives, but they read some idiotic pamphlet put out by similar types who have never farmed, and bought into the BS hook line and sinker. Keep up the nutty sterotype though, the prairie folk need BC as their comic relief.

[daria]

Personal attack deleted by Trip*I actually do support farmers, but I buy organic and, of course, locally as much as possible. I love the Farmers' Market for that very reason. If it's crazy to want to know the people who are growing mine and my family's food, and to know that they aren't putting chemicals on the produce, then I'll gladly be crazy.

Aren't your family members annoyed when they have to use more and more pesticides, because their monoculture crops begin to develop pesticide resistance? Aren't they annoyed by GMO seeds containing suicide genes? Or have they already bought into Monsanto's BS, and so they don't have to worry about becoming the next Percy Schmeiser?

[The Green Barbarian]

I actually do support farmers, but I buy organic and, of course, locally as much as possible. I love the Farmers' Market for that very reason. If it's crazy to want to know the people who are growing mine and my family's food, and to know that they aren't putting chemicals on the produce, then I'll gladly be crazy.

It's not crazy at all - to each their own. If you honestly feel safer buying your food at a farmers market as therefore "you know where it comes from" all the more power to you. I think you are missing my point - my point is - just because you are able to cure your paranoia through this method of food-buying, don't force your weird views on me. That includes the weirdness of Kelowna city council and their pesticide ban. PS - if you honestly think that the farmers at the Farmer's Market aren't using pesticides then you are beyond naive. There is no way to produce food at a price anywhere near affordable without using chemicals, and I know farmers who tell their hippy-dippy "organic" buyers they don't use pesticides, yet they still do, because a)they know they'd never be able to grow their food without using them, and b)they know that all the stories about pesticides are complete lies and are not harmful - so no harm no foul.

Aren't your family members annoyed when they have to use more and more pesticides, because their monoculture crops begin to develop pesticide resistance?:

No - because this isn't true - it's complete garbage propaganda invented by the nutty enviro crazies.

Aren't they annoyed by GMO seeds containing suicide genes? :

see answer above.

Or have they already bought into Monsanto's BS, and so they don't have to worry about becoming the next Percy Schmeiser?

There isn't any Monsanto BS to "buy into" - they would have already lost interest after your second weird question as it would be obvious to them that you are so out of touch with reality when it comes to modern farming that there would be no point continuing the conversation. Dare I ask who Percy Schmeiser is? Does it matter? Did this person ever even exist? Or is he just another made-up fantasy?

[daria]

If you haven't heard of Percy Schmeiser, then you probably don't actually have any family who farms on the prairies, or you've been living under a rock. It's not as if the Supreme Court of Canada ever heard his case against Monsanto.

I don't mind if certain people decide that they don't think pesticides are harmful, because that's just Darwinism at work.

[The Green Barbarian]

If you haven't heard of Percy Schmeiser, then you probably don't actually have any family who farms on the prairies, or you've been living under a rock. It's not as if the Supreme Court of Canada ever heard his case against Monsanto. :

I'll inform them all that they should sell their farms immediately because someone in BC thinks that they should be focused on some nutcase suing Monsanto. I expect gales of laughter, almost as much laughter as will erupt when I send them a link to your comments.

I don't mind if certain people decide that they don't think pesticides are harmful, because that's just Darwinism at work.

I'll say it again - you are almost 100% for sure ingesting pesticides. But it doesn't matter - what is really at work here is economic Darwinism - people willing to pay 3 - 5 times more for almost exactly the same food with the same level of pesticides (probably even more given the small concentration of food you are buying if it is locally grown) as you would get at Safeway or Costco. So keep at it and keep paying exorbinant prices to combat your paranoid delusions about pesticides - it is still cheaper than therapy.

[Rwede]

Pesticides are for lazy people anyway.

lazy people like farmers trying to grow the food we eat - shame on those guys.

Lazy farmers buying into the monoculture production promoted by Big Agri? Lazy farmers whose pesticide use leaches nutrients out of our soil, so that what should be naturally occurring vitamins and minerals have to be added in a synthetic form to processed foods? Yes, those lazy farmers.

So you're suggesting that these lazy farmers hire a bunch of people to squish bugs and pull weeds on their 640 acre section of crops, just so you get what you want? Can you tell me what you're willing to pay bug squishers and weed pullers to produce this for you, when we have perfectly safe means of accomplishing the same results at a price consumers can afford to feed their families?

[grammafreddy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_%28herbicide%29

That's an interesting read.

And here's what you CAN use in the City of Kelowna: http://www.kelowna.ca/CityPage/Docs/PDF ... edule2.pdf

[The Green Barbarian]

Pesticides are for lazy people anyway.

lazy people like farmers trying to grow the food we eat - shame on those guys.

Lazy farmers buying into the monoculture production promoted by Big Agri? Lazy farmers whose pesticide use leaches nutrients out of our soil, so that what should be naturally occurring vitamins and minerals have to be added in a synthetic form to processed foods? Yes, those lazy farmers.

So you're suggesting that these lazy farmers hire a bunch of people to squish bugs and pull weeds on their 640 acre section of crops, just so you get what you want? Can you tell me what you're willing to pay bug squishers and weed pullers to produce this for you, when we have perfectly safe means of accomplishing the same results at a price consumers can afford to feed their families?

Richard - 640 acres is a hobby farm by prairie standards. These BC hippy types have no concept of the size of the average prairie farm, so they have no idea what they are talking about when they start yammering on about "organic" farming practices when applied to the real world of farming. There is NO WAY you could farm 3 - 5 thousand acres by hand, you'd just end up with 3 - 5 thousand acres of weeds and the bank would be taking your land away within a year or two. I wish more of these granola-heads that live here that want to tell everyone else how to live their lives would get off their latte-sipping butts, and get in their Volkswagen vans or their Priuses and drive to Saskatchewan in July/August and see the real world for once, even do some honest labour and see how real farming works. After about two hours spent on a real farm, all of this gibberish being spouted about "monoculture" crops would vanish and they'd realize how foolish they sound. It's so easy to pass judgement on farmers whilst sitting in front of the "Bean Scene" in Kelowna with a bunch of other like-minded individuals who have all read the same bogus literature. It's quite another to go and sit on a tractor or drive a grain truck and see what it takes to make a go of it at real farming.

[Corneliousrooster]

the real world of farming.

The real world of farming died about 50 or so years ago - what you have now is a mutation of industry by big business. Take away any one element to the "new paradigm" of farming and ask the "farmers" how their crop did .... A trucking stike could effectively destroy a seasons crops produced in this way if the shipments of pesticide/fertilizer/seed don't make it to the farmer. The farmer can't farm WITHOUT big agri - How natural is that?

You do know that dandelions grow in cycles? i never use weed killer on mine - my neighbour uses TONS of weed killer on every single one of them. May - both of our yards are covered in yellow. I do nothing aside from a weekly mow, my neighbour gets out the spray and gets them all in his yard. End of May - my neighbour has Zero dandelions and I have about 1/3 the amount I did at the beginning of May. By July our yards look the same (both have very minimal dandelion showings).

This year my neighbour (after watching me for the last 6 years) decided they were not going to spray as it seemed like a waste when they compared their yard to mine. now we both watch our neighbour across the street spray (and our yards all look the same right now).

Growing a strong healthy, deep rooted lawn is the most effective way to beat dandelions (all you need is water and sunshine and a healthy soil which can be made healthy with a compost application - no poison neccessary - unless you are lazy sunshine: )