Drift

Last month, we introduced PAN supporters to Oluf and Debra Johnson, the organic farmers in Minnesota who have been fighting to protect their crops from pesticide drift for over a decade. We asked the PAN community to help us thank the Johnsons for their courageous perseverance in the face of adversity.

This week our Midwest organizer, Linda Wells, visited the Johnson farm and delivered a book for Oluf and Debra made up of the more than 7,000 signatures and individual thank-you notes from PAN supporters. The couple was beyond grateful. 

Men who live in neighborhoods that experience pesticide drift are 1.5 times more likely to develop prostate cancer.

This is what scientists found in a one-of-a-kind study that compares rates of the cancer among men who lived near agricultural fields where methyl bromide, captan or organochlorine insecticides were applied with those who lived farther from drifting pesticides.

Whether they are sprayed from planes or injected into the soil, pesticides don’t recognize fences or property lines. But pesticide users are, again, being forced to pay property owners for damage caused by airborne drift when they cross those lines.

According to a decision handed down July 26 by a Minnesota court, organic farmers who are victims of this “trespass” are entitled to compensation for pesticide contamination.