Fateful Harvest
Subtitle: The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: September 4, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780060193690
Subjects: Social Science; Environmental Studies; Politics/International Relations; Environmental; Environmental Conservation & Protection - General; Public Policy - General; Reading Group Guide; Sociology - General; Environmental aspects; Factory and trade waste as fer; Factory and trade waste as fertilizer; Fertilizer industry; Hazardous wastes; Quincy; Washington (State)
Description: "Quincy, Washington, had been a sleepy northwestern farming town until its rest is disturbed by a shocking secret beneath its once-fertile fields: chemical manufacturers are disposing of leftover toxic waste by selling it to unsuspecting farmers as fertilizer. The tainted fertilizer - containing arsenic and cadmium, lead and dioxins - is believed to be destroying crops, sickening animals, and endangering the nation's food supply. And owing to a gaping regulatory loophole, it is completely legal.".

"Up against the secrecy and greed of powerful corporations, a local lifelong tomboy and mother of four will make an impassioned stand. Patty Martin begins a fateful journey that will lead to her election as mayor, but also invite the resentment of most of her neighbors for daring to confront the industry that has been Quincy's lifeblood.

Martin is joined by a small number of brave farmers who bring ingenuity, outrage, and an investigative reporter to the fight against seemingly insurmountable odds to expose the truth. They learn that toxic waste is turned into fertilizer around the world, spread on food-growing land, absorbed by plants, and, ultimately, consumed by all of us.".

"Duff Wilson provides the definitive account of a new and alarming environmental scandal. Fateful Harvest is a study of corruption and courage, of recklessness and reckoning."--BOOK JACKET.