Organic honey

[tonybloke]

Do local councils use chemicals on roadside verges?

Have you any evidence to back up this statement? And if so what do you think they would be spraying?

I do a fair bit of travelling round the country, through a number of counties and have never seen roadside verges being sprayed.

I've seen them being cut (regularly) litter picked (ocassionally) Ragwort pulled (seasonally) and hedge/tree trimming (seasonally)



Frisbee

Fris, the kerbsides of many main roads are sprayed with glphosate to stop the encroachment of grass onto main highways.

here's a link from surrey http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/environment/streetcleansing/weeds.htm

 

[Brosville]

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GHCCBD.php
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2005-10-01/Hazards-of-the-Worlds-Most-Common-Herbicide.aspx

 

[MuswellMetro]

Do local councils use chemicals on roadside verges?



Frisbee

extract from your local county council's web site, implies they may well spray

Routine Maintenance – We will:

* Inspect all 4000 km (2500miles) of our roads, pavements and signs on a regular basis.
* Repair damage and wear to keep roads and pavements safe and in good condition
* Carry out programmed maintenance to prevent roads and pavements wearing out
* Remove the backlog of main roads that are worn out by 2010
* Cut grass verges in towns and villages at least 9 times a year
* Control weed growth on pavements and kerbsides
* Clean our roadside drains at least once a year, more in problem areas

 

[Stephen H.]

I have seen council workers in a type of golf Buggy spraying the roadside and also with back pack sprayers. so assume that in Essex we do spray the verges,plus the farmers spray over the field boundrys onto the verge I saw that yesterday .

 

[jezd]

my own funny (to me) on organics is that during the local veg show in August they sell of the veg at the end, my neighbouring farmer who keeps livestock next to my field always quotes my veg as being almost organic, 'who know' he says with a smile.

try as we might to be organic we are all compromised by those around us.

I am 99% organic in my veg

 

[Ewok]

Do local councils use chemicals on roadside verges?

Have you any evidence to back up this statement? And if so what do you think they would be spraying?

I do a fair bit of travelling round the country, through a number of counties and have never seen roadside verges being sprayed.

I've seen them being cut (regularly) litter picked (ocassionally) Ragwort pulled (seasonally) and hedge/tree trimming (seasonally)



Frisbee

The statement was "IF" Not a statement that county councils do.

However:

I have no idea about now but when I was a kid, Gloucestershire CC used to spray weed killer everywhere on the verges. It was probably faster & therefore cheeper than cutting back the verges on all the country lanes. I used to get rashes off the stuff.

Now in Hampshire they seem to do spot spraying on weeds growing up around signposts etc.

 

[Hombre]

. . . the farmers spray over the field boundaries onto the verge I saw that yesterday .

I heard an interesting talk from Nick Padwick, NFU Farmer of the year 2009, just yesterday; part of which was about the reduction of costs by preventing overlap in spraying of herbicides, fertiliser and drilling of seeds by the adoption of systems that make these things very very accurate.

Your farmer appears not to have field margins either, or he would be well away from the field boundaries; so not very progressive in 2010 terms then?

 

[tonybloke]

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GHCCBD.php
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2005-10-01/Hazards-of-the-Worlds-Most-Common-Herbicide.aspx

yes brosville, we know of the potential health risks / hazards. but the question was not about the chemicals used, just as to whether they are used at all.?

 

[Brosville]

"we know of the potential health risks / hazards" - good heavens, how gratifying, I thought that most people were still swallowing the chemical companies' line that glyphosates were "totally safe"

There's no doubt they're used - if you keep your eyes open there's knapsack sprayers and motor driven-sprayers much in evidence, certainly in this area!
And when the NFU (which I always thought stood for no effing use) is mentioned, it should be in the context of mentioning that they're pretty much a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Agrochem, as witness this little diatribe when someone DARED tell the truth about their toxins..........http://www.farmersguardian.com/nfu-letter-dispels-organic-myths/20481.article - somewhat reminiscent of another "independent" organisation.........

 

[tonybloke]

thanks for providing the link, brosville, some interesting reading.

 

[REDWOOD]

Hi all, I work for a local coucil and one of my work mates obtained some weed killer that they spray on pavements and paths, he wanted it to stop grass from his lawn spreading over his path, he mixed it up with the correct amount of water and put it in a spray bottle and sprayed the edge of the path, 4 weeks later he has no weeds, no lawn, no flowers and dying trees, another case is that when the council sprayed a pavement it blew in to a well kept garden and the affects was the same dead plant life, for the council to correct this error 2 foot of top soil was removed and the council garden department replanted the whole thing. I don't know the brand name of the chemical but will find out tomorrow. Why do council tell us to recycle for the enviroment and on the other side of the coin destroy it with toxic chemicals ?

 

[Kevi]

Organic does not equal no chemicals

The majority of people assume that "organic" means that sythetic chemicals are not used to grow crops. This is not true, many "organically" approved (by the soil association) chemicals are used. Glyphosate (Roundup), a weed killer is one. Ironically, true organic chemicals produced naturally from plants (Derris dust being one) are banned for "organic" use, whilst fungicides (usually copper based) are approved because there are no suitable alternatives. If you do not use chemicals on crops but use manure from animals that have been fed on non-organic feed, you still have chemicals in the food chain - So what is organic?

 

[m100]

So what is organic?

DDT, Agent Orange and Imidacloprid are all organic.

Hope that helped

 

[Brosville]

Which proves? (semantic pedantry of the worst sort, designed to mislead?)
If you are using it as "carbon based" which is one meaning of the word - it just means it has carbon atoms (as does an awful lot of stuff- good, bad and terrible)

Agent Orange victim

" The Soil Association's rules allow farmers to use four pesticides, with permission. Non-organic farming uses more than 300. The vast majority of organic farmers have no need for sprays. If all farming was organic, spraying would fall by 98 per cent. Organic sprays are mainly used on potatoes and in orchards. Those we allow are either of natural origin (rotenone and soft soap) or simple chemical products – copper compounds and sulphur. The active ingredients in rotenone and soft soap break down rapidly when exposed to sunlight, minimising risk to the environment. Copper and sulphur occur naturally in the soil, and most copper is applied by non-organic farmers to correct copper deficiencies. None is found in organic food"

Quote from Peter Melchett, from the Soil Association...........

 

[VEG]

Hi all, I work for a local coucil and one of my work mates obtained some weed killer that they spray on pavements and paths, he wanted it to stop grass from his lawn spreading over his path, he mixed it up with the correct amount of water and put it in a spray bottle and sprayed the edge of the path, 4 weeks later he has no weeds, no lawn, no flowers and dying trees, another case is that when the council sprayed a pavement it blew in to a well kept garden and the affects was the same dead plant life, for the council to correct this error 2 foot of top soil was removed and the council garden department replanted the whole thing. I don't know the brand name of the chemical but will find out tomorrow. Why do council tell us to recycle for the enviroment and on the other side of the coin destroy it with toxic chemicals ?

Does the user have a pesticide spraying licence?
He has probably used it in windy conditions and has had spray drift, if he knew what he was doing he shoildnt have used it if the conditions wern't right. I use this stuff in my work we only spray when the conditions are perfect. We use different weedkillers depending on what needs getting rid of.

 

[andypigeon]

you would need 2-3 miles of organic land around your hive, i use to work on a orgainc farm and you carnt even put cow poo from a normal farm down on your land so saying orgainc honey, when there is none organic land around you is wrong and and you cant sale it as orgainc.

 

[Leigh]

I asked the same question of the soil association (when can you claim your honey is organic)....their answer was pretty much "never", unless you happen to own and farm your own island which IS organic, with any other potential sources of nectar out of range. There is one such place.....but for the rest of us, any ideas of correctly claiming our honey is organic should be quickly put to bed!