Pesticides kill, and they kill those in the fields first. The herbicide atrazine, banned in most of Europe, is the main chemical used in U.S. agriculture. It alters estrogen in the body, causes tumors in lab rats, is acknowledged to be a possible human carcinogen, and is a primary contaminant of drinking water. Women are especially vulnerable to its effects. When exposed to high levels of organochlorines, women develop higher than average rates of breast cancer.
Pesticides also result in birth defects and developmental problems in children.
In Yakima County, an apple-growing region of Washington state, the number of birth defects is more than twice the state average. They have been the foremost fighters against the agriculture czars, and they will continue to be. Depleting and despoiling the earth's resources. What agribusiness doesn't poison, it voraciously consumes. Now there are only 300,000 acres.