Thursday, July 09, 2009

Advertising for herbicides


Farmers face a barrage of advertisements extolling the virtues of this or that herbicide, fertilizers and the equipment to apply them with. I took this photo on the side of the elevator in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan and turned it into a black and white to give the message more clout perhaps. The artwork intrigued me and reminded me of the Soviet style propaganda photos one sees extolling the virtues of the workers in the Motherland, etc.
Herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides are a big industry and farmers have little to say about prices of these products. In order to compete they have to apply these products even though many realize the potential harm to the soil and to people. Farmers can't raise their prices in order to cover the additional costs of applying herbicides, etc., and so are at the mercy of the suppliers.
Organic farmers are working hard to counter this trend and we should support them for it as far as I'm concerned.

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