Evaggelos Vallianatos was an analyst for the EPA and is now a self proclaimed expert on pesticide use and corporate farming. He recently pimped his book "This land is their land" on BookTV. After listening to the presentation, I couldn't help but feel that this man is not a scientist. He makes noises like any other liberal arts professor. Worse, he's joined the cult of organic farming. You know, the folks who brought us contaminated spinach? So, I checked his biography, and sure enough, he has a BA in zoology, an MA in Byzantine history, and a Ph.D in Greek and Russian history. With all that education in ecological issues, no wonder the EPA hired him...NOT!
At any rate, to prove how pesticide use has gotten out of control, he read a litany of statistics comparing present day use with 1962 usage. Problem is, in 1962, we were using DDT, an EXTREMELY efficient pesticide, a little went a lot. It was banned during the environmental awakening in the 60's and early 70's. So , no wonder we need more pesticides today! Plus, last time I checked, we got an extra billion of two to feed than in 1962. No one asked about this, they just sat in awed admiration of this huckster.
I know we can't stop universities from passing out advanced degrees in obsolete knowledge. I know we can't stop publishing companies from producing books written by fanatics like this one. And we can't stop people from grabbing the nearest soapbox and peddling their religion. But hopefully, we can stop the EPA and other government agencies from hiring incompetent fanatics and putting them in positions of power.
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