Contaminated manure warning

I read something about this on another forum and some people advised that if you had any crops that had been affected to contact DEFRA and let them take them to be tested.

well that will teach us for using house of commons manure.......................seriously though thanks for the warning

Flippin heck! i'm guessing if stuff is still growing that some newbies or people who didn't know anything about the contamination might actually eat the crops that can't be good. I think i'm all clear although i have lost a fair number of potato plants in a patch i manured. How are you supposed to know though? seems like a bit of a pass the buck by the company.

I have just written a big blog entry about this over on myfolia.com

Davesnave, the problem with 'knowing your sources' is that it doesn't always work like that. The 'food chain' of manure is a lot more complicated than it first appears. Respected brands and big chains are affected as well as farms and merchants who have been highly respected for years. Think about it... a farmer buys in a little extra silage from a neighbouring farmer... he's not necessarily going to ask about aminopyralid. Ditto the horse-owner who buys in a little extra straw. Ditto the merchant who collects the waste and the manure. The supply chains are too complicated and too interconnected. In any case the chemical is sold under at least half a dozen different brands, none of which are its actual name... Forefront, Banish, Halcyon, Pharaoh, Pro-Banish, Doxstar and Runway for example. And organic farmers are allowed to source their manure, straw, mulch etc from any unregistered source, even if they know that it is swimming with chemicals. Am I the only one who finds it a little disturbing that responsibility for all of this was left in the hands of an industry that has spent decades lurching from crisis to crisis because of its inability to put common sense before profits?

lindseykim13 I find it pretty disturbing. This chemical, that alters the hormonal structure of plants, is so potent that you only need to use two litres to treat an entire hectare, so potent that it kills crops on it for at least two years, even after it has passed through ruminants, even after it has been rotted... nice stuff... Some crops known to have been grown on the affected manure do not show any outward signs of damage, and when you ask if it is safe to eat that produce, you get a long list of "we don't know"s. I'm guessing that the drug research was really rigorous and thorough. :rolleyes: I mean, this mess can hardly have taken them by surprise. And incidentally, DowAgro who make it have a little bit of a history concerning this sort of thing.

There's a few lessons to be learnt here, not least that 'organic' doesn't mean 'safe'. Everyone except us gardeners has a vested interest in keeping all of this quiet. The manufacturer does obviously (and you can forget compensation from them if you are affected; they're telling people to speak to the people who supplied them with the manure. Nothing like corporate responsibility, is there?). The government won't be keen to admit that a drug they licensed (and that replaced a long-standing one that they banned) may be imperfect, and in any case it is more their thing to ignore problems until they either go away or become so big that they can't. Even the old authorities won't want to admit that their best organic processes might not be enough. The good thing is that we can all make one another aware of these things nowadays. Twenty years ago we'd all still be at the head-scratching stage on allotment sites up and down the country. I for one am going to make as much of a bloody racket about this as I can.

writestuff, the latest from the pesticides safety directorate is that contaminated crops ARE safe to eat. Whether or not you believe that... your choice. KEEP some of the affected matter if possible. I can put you in contact with legal advice as people are starting to sue, we can give you template letters, advise of what to sue for and who to sue etc.

I am doing a lot of work on this at the moment - I have kind of fallen into it, even though I haven't been personally affected. A blog I wrote kind of attracted some attention - two journals have asked to publish it and many allotment societies etc have contacted me. I've got a 'pester power' and info website going live in the next day or so.

Anyone who is affected, needs info, has anything interesting that I might not have come across, PLEASE post here or PM me!!!