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Aerial Fumigation Kills Livestock and Wildlife
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n804/a10.html
Newshawk: MAP's DrugNews is read in about 125 countries
Pubdate: Tue, 01 Jun 2004
Source: Columbus Free Press (OH)
Copyright: 2004 The Columbus Free Press
Contact: truth@freepress.org
Website: http://www.freepress.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3168
Note: by Iggy the Pot-Bellied Pig
Note: Series from a Special edition of the Free Press, published
in conjunction with Hempfest 2004. For 17 other articles in this series,
click this link http://www.mapinc.org/source/Columbus+Free+Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Plan+Colombia
AERIAL FUMIGATION KILLS LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE
Since July 2000, the U.S. government has spent over 2 billion
dollars to fund an anti-drug program aimed at eradicating cocoa and
poppy production in Colombia. The goal of Plan Colombia is to
reduce cocao and poppy production by half by 2005. In a two year
period from December 2000 to December 2002, U.S. contractors and
Colombian drug authorities sprayed 628,828 acres of Colombia with a
potent herbicide.
A milder version of this glyphosate poison is sold in the U.S.
under the brand name Round-up weed killer. This fumigation is done
from airplanes which often have to fly higher than recommended when
spraying due to risks of being shot at. Spray drift often results
in unintended damage and any plant life sprayed by this herbicide dies
within several days.
Often times, a subsistence farmer's entire food crop is killed and in
many cases, no cocoa plants were present.
Damage to people, livestock and wildlife have all been documented.
Colombia is covered by the fertile and biodiverse rainforest, which
harbors untold numbers of wildlife species. After having all their
crops killed, many subsistence farmers in Colombia go further into the
rainforest to clear more land, whereby killing and displacing more
wildlife.
Clearly this program is not working; a study released in 2001 by United
Nations international Drug Program and the Colombian National Drug
Control Efforts reported that despite fumigation cocoa production had
jumped by 60%.
Check The Latin America Working Group's website at www.lawg.org
or Witness for Peace at www.witnessforpeace.org
for more information.
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