Customer Reviews

Fateful Harvest: The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Duff Wilson is an investigative reporter for the Seattle Times who got a call one day from Patty Martin, mayor of Quincy, Washington, who told him an almost unbelievable tale of toxic waste being sold as fertilizer. The zinger was, as Wilson discovered, it was entirely legal!

Imagine this: big industrial companies, growing increasingly displeased with having to pay for the cost of disposing of their hazardous waste materials, typically with unsafe amounts of heavy metals, find through a loophole in the law that they can declare the waste a "product" and sell it as fertilizer! Instead of paying perhaps a hundred dollars a barrel to get rid of the stuff, they can sell it to firms that add a little lime or some other soil conditioner and abracadabra! peddle it as fertilizer. Sound like a Greenpeace scare story? A nightmare dreamed up by disgruntled employees? "Bad" farmers looking to blame somebody for their failed Frankenfeed crops? The fertilizer industry would like us to think so, but this story about Patty Martin and her brave and lonely crusade against the dumping of hazard waste on farmlands tells us otherwise.

The terrible thing is that, although Wilson's original story, "Fear in the Fields--How Hazardous Wastes Become Fertilizer," first appeared in July of 1997, as the book closes in 2001, the loophole in the law has not been plugged, congress has not acted, and the polluters are still turning hazardous waste infused with cadmium, lead, arsenic, etc., into stuff smeared on farmlands. It gets into the crops farmers grow and ends up in the food on our dining room tables. It blows off the fields when it's dry and into the lungs of people. The workers in these fertilizer plants have elevated levels of cancer and lung scaring disease, and the sad thing is some of them are so wedded to the company that they are blind to what is destroying their bodies.

Wilson names names and gives examples. He cites the chemical analyses and he quotes the industry apologists and the look-the-other-way bureaucrats in the oversight agencies. But clearly the real culprits are those people at the top of our state and federal governments who are doing nothing stop this dangerous pollution.

This is the kind of story that'll make you hopping mad and wonder about the morality (and sanity) of people who would, to save a few bucks on the bottom line, poison us, themselves and our children.

It is simple. Read the book. Decide if you want to eat your food with some toxic fertilizer sprinkled on by corporate-terrorists. Do your research and then decide what you are going to do about this horrendous insult to all life and the land around the world. This issue leaves me mourning for our world. Thankfully there are still dedicated people like Duff Wilson that uncover the scoundrels that have no conscience except for the dollar. Rachael Carson blew the whistle on DDT and now Mr. Wilson is blowing the whistle on toxic waste fertilizers unwittingly being used by farmers and gardeners everywhere. Wake up EPA!

Don Delillo could not have imagined this. I was more blown away by 'Fateful Harvest' than by 'A Civil Action' or 'Erin Brockovich'. Those earlier works were isolated cases of industry abuse, while this book exposes a real-life toxic waste scandal focused ultimately on the food eaten by billions. What's most scary is that the scandal is still going on! -- toxic waste is turned into fertilizer, and spread on the food supply; but the politicians shrug while lives are destroyed. Wilson, an experienced investigative reporter, does a great job of distilling the science (and the politics) behind the news story. He effectively weaves the life of an unlikely small-town heroine into the larger perspective. It's definitely a compelling and accessible read. I did it in a day and a half.

This is a story of how mining and manufacturing companies have successfully lobbied to and succeeded in poisoning croplands with their toxic wastes. It makes no difference how nasty or radioactive the mix, the minute it is mixed with fillers and placed in a bag with a fertilizer or soil amendments label the industries were home free--no regulation, no problem. It is certainly curious that it took so long for this to come out. There is an international treaty to prevent toxic waste dumping abroad that the U.S. has not signed. After the treaty was created Greenpeace activists noticed that the definition of "hazardous waste" was changed. "In other words rather than trying to eliminate hazardous wastes, governments are trying to eliminate hazardous waste definitions." The story broke, though, not because of some international activist organization, but because the bright and persistent mayor of a small agricultural town with a fertilizer plant was concerned about the health of local school children. By the time the townspeople demanded that she shut up, it was too late, the press was on the scene. Recounting this much of the adventure takes us about two-thirds of the way through the book. From there on the author carries on alone moving from the local level to the national level. His newly developed sources confirmed that this was not just a local problem of renegade "recylcers" near Hanford Washington, but a nationwide set of standard operating procedures uniformly practiced by the largest U.S. Corporations. The next step was not too hard, the author went to a home and garden store down the street, bought twenty kinds of fertilizer and had them analyzed for fourteen toxic metals. He went to the companies that made the really toxic ones like NuLife and Ironite. NuLife was so toxic it would have to be disposed of in a fenced landfill with double plastic lining, until, that is, it was labeled as fertilizer, then it could go in a child's sandbox. A Washington state warning bulletin was issued concerning Ironite. Five of the fertilizers tested "cleaner in toxic metals that the background level in the soil" including MiracleGro. The test results are listed on www.seattletimes.com as part of his first article. The press services carried it, the New York Times ignored it. Heavy metals do not biodegrade, they bioaccumulate. The land get sicker and sicker each year until the land is barren as happened to some farmers in the Mayor's town. This toxicity induce immune deficiency diseases that are reinforced year after year. Hundreds of companies legally dump hundreds of millions of pounds of toxics via the fertilizer backdoor. Lead content in fertilizer, for example, may be one hundred times what would be considered safe if measured in residential. One pilot study found that 14 million pounds of this waste is carcinogenic. The biggest offenders were Frit Industries (a Superfund site) and Bay Zinc. Richard Camp, Jr who owns Bay Zinc now has to duck catcalls of "baby murderer." Also W.R.Grace&Co. sells vermiculite which contains eighty times the amount of asbestos allowable by worker safety standards. When the mayor was voted out, they did the State of Washington a big favor, now she can work full time with activists at a higher level to bring change. Washington became the first state in the nation to have a (watered down to be less than Canadian standards) law that monitors, regulates and labels fertilizers. If you have internet access you can read the labels on-line at www.wa.gov/agr/. If you happen to be in a store reading the label to make a buying decision, too bad, no information is required there. "What should be done next? I think we need real oversight and testing and disclosure and change. Part of the answer may be found in nature. Why not seek to remove the toxins as our legacy to the land, or at the very least, limit them to the natural background level of the soil? Roughly a third of our fertilizers would pass that test today. What is sold as fertilizer simply ought to be cleaner than dirt." The book is well-footnoted and has a quality index. It is well-paced with lots of human interest too. A good read.

This is a deeply disturbing true story of a somewhat naive rural housewife who meets the rough & tumble of environmental politics head-on. It changes her life in unforseen ways, as well as those around her -- including the author, a seasoned investigative reporter who lets us inside his head. Readers should not demand absolute proof of health effects from toxic waste in fertilizers. The evidence marshalled by this book is convincing enough that real policy changes should result. In any event, it's obvious that we ought not to be taking toxic waste collected from smokestacks and dumping it on the food supply. The real scandal that Duff Wilson uncovers is the industry amorality and government complicity in this outrageously stupid practice of using toxic waste as plant food. Beware those who say there's not enough proof of harm -- that's what the cigarette companies argued for decades.

In this fast moving information age, we have become used to hearing of environmental controversies only when it is convenient for the media. With FATEFUL HARVEST, a proven investigative reporter conveys the painful truth that has been hidden by chemical companies for decades. DUFF WILSON is hardly a fly-by-night writer and his credibility outweighs the reviews elsewhere here that dismisses his words as "sophomoric" and "one-sided."

In fact, WILSON goes far beyond some books that investigate; he goes coast to coast making sure his facts are straight and balanced. So it becomes obvious that the negative reviews written here are likely from industry dogs.

Government officials who first ignored the findings and claims of PATTY MARTIN in Quincy, Washington were simply following the bureaucratic pattern of ignorance and non-action. But an unrelenting MARTIN and others held their ground and the chemical companies like CENEX were caught with conclusive evidence of their crimes. DUFF WILSON has fairly and accurately revealed what all of us have suspected for some time, that corporations use their financial and political power to hide their dirty little secrets. Now the truth is out and what makes this different than the colorful story of ERIN BROCKOVICH and PG&E in California is this is a national tragedy, a national crime. PG&E's poisoning was regional, yet just as criminal.

FATEFUL HARVEST will certainly engage you, it will shock you and it has opened the books on an issue that will change how our foods are farmed and fertilized. If you believe the words of naysayers, then you're obviously in favor of the big companies that dumped this toxic waste on the farmers. Read FATEFUL HARVEST and you'll know that the truth hurts.

Just ask the tobacco companies about the truth.

"Fateful Harvest" was easy to read but the facts presented left me outraged and saddened. Read the book and learn of the magic trick of turning toxic waste with costly disposal fees into a product to sell, fertilizer. Fertilizer which is laced with heavy metals that will end up in our food in increasing amounts as the accumulation in the soil increases. Learn how the average citizen, small town mayor and farmer have zero ability to impact business practices which are supported by the government despite years of heroic effort and the expose of this book. Despite minimal cosmetic changes, the practice goes on, and is apparently unstoppable, leaving nowhere to turn.

  The author acts as a filter for dozens of libelous ideas that Mayor Patty Martin presents based on her monitoring of local farmers and fertilizer companies. He verifies that:
  Hazardous chemicals are being disposed of by turning them into fertilizers. There are no requirements to provide an analysis for the non-active ingredients which might include Arsenic, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium, Cobalt, Dioxins, Lead, Mercury, Nickel, and Uranium which can be present in huge quantities. Dust masks are be mandatory just to handle many such formulations.
  Most farmers, consumers, and regulators have no idea these toxins are being plowed into the soil. Since no analysis is available, no tracking is possible for those who do know.
  No regulatory agency is charged with testing fertilizers for toxic contamination, no standards exist yet in the US (they do in Canada) An even bigger loophole exists for "bulk soil amendments"
  Plants absorb many toxics and pass them to the human food chain. Little research has been to determine what is safe for humans, the soil, farm animals, the water table, etc.
  There is a disease cluster for ideopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the mayor's town (a rare fatal environmentally induced disease).
  Crop yields can drop dramatically and what was once perfectly good fertile soil can turn into a useless toxic dump site.
  The author may not be a scientist, but he is a hard worker and he knows his craft. He's got a very big story here. Even organic farmers in some states use amendments and are unaware of the dangers.
  This is the kind of atrocity that every consumer, gardener, farmer, grocer and activist need to rally to defeat.

A thoughtfully written book which documents the plight of small-town citizens turned activists who struggle to expose the horrifying industry practice of dumping toxic waste in our nation's fertilizers. You will admire the courage of Mayor Patty Martin and farmer Dennis DeYoung in their insurmountable battle to protect a farming community and our food supply.

Investigative reporter Duff Wilson reveals not only is this toxic waste polluting some of the nation's richest farmland, it may be contaminating our food. Consider this: Wilson notes Washington's J.R. Simplot Company is one of the nation's biggest exporter of french fries. "The northwestern United States supplied 80 percent of the world's fries."

Wilson's book captures the spirit of this human struggle against the forces of corporate greed and inept government regulators. This reporter expertly documents this unthinkable practice and lays it out there very simply, in provocative, tightly written prose. I read it in six hours. I can only hope this book inspires legislators to re-examine this issue in the name of public safety. It brings new meaning to the "happy meal."

My eyes raced through Duff Wilson's "Fateful Harvest" spotting characters I know from an issue with which I have been acquainted for some time. Quincy Washington's Patty Martin could be Herculaneum, Missouri's Leslie Warden. Both women are bravely fighting a lonely battle to stop stupid men from poisoning innocent people. Patty, snarfing out the truth about hazardous waste being turned into fertilizer as doggedly as Hercule Poirot unknowingly crosses paths with a toxic issue in Missouri.
Leslie Warden, stubborn like Patty, is trying to save the people in her town, where the Doe Run a lead smelter is contaminating the homes and may be contributing to the early deaths of the people in Herculaneum.
When I read in "Fateful Harvest" that "baghouse dust" being used to make fertilizer, my heart sank to below my feet. A baghouse is a filter for a smelter to trap fugitive dust particles of lead, cadmium, arsenic, zinc and other heavy metals. The smelter has other "waste products" like black acid, a witches brew of sulfuric acid and heavy metals. Doe Run just about gives this away to Frit Industries in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Bingo! This company that Leslie and others are fighting because it's poisoning their town is suddenly in the middle of Patty Martin's fight. She is trying to convince the American people that Doe Run and a myriad of other dirty businesses are solving their toxic waste disposal problems by feeding it to all of us. If that is not the most stupid idea, a more hideously stupid one is that the EPA and Congress are allowing this to go on. It is totally LEGAL!!!
The Doe Run and Frit connection is only one of many. Read Duff Wilson's excellent expose to find out if a company near you is doing you dirt. Then talk to the farmers and neighbors in your community to alert them to the danger in our food supply. This book may save our lives and our civilization!