'Fall Armyworm' Invades China; Wreaks Havoc On Agriculture Lands

by Tyler Durden

Tue, 08/13/2019 - 01:00China's agriculture ministry warned in June that it found fall armyworms in 21 provinces, across 333,000 hectares of crops.

Fall armyworms (Spodoptera frugiperda) are a destructive garden pest that can destroy a variety of crops as well as grasses.

Chinese officials are worried about prevention and control measures of the pest might be failing, which could lead to crop losses this year.

Beijing warned fall armyworms could damage hundreds, if not thousands of hectares of crops, leading to possible food security issues for the country.

To counter the pest, China has requested farmers in the 21 provinces to use government-approved pesticides.

The "heart-devouring worm" - as locals call it - has spread almost 1,900 miles north since migrating from neighboring Myanmar earlier this year, now threatens 21 provinces and regions in China and could heavily impact the country's grain output.

In Yunnan, a province in southwestern China, the pest has already destroyed 86,000 hectares of corn, sugarcane, sorghum, and ginger crops.

Fall armyworm started to spread through Africa and Asia in 2016, these pests, which are moths, fly 60 miles per night, is very challenging for farmers and governments to exterminate.

The pests have strained small farmers, who produce at least 90% of the country's crop.

In hard-hit Yunnan, the local government has installed 3,500 monitoring sites at farms to observe the pests and agriculture conditions, the provincial agriculture bureau wrote to Reuters via email.

Sugarcane farmer Yan in Mengkang village said the only answer to the fall armyworm disaster is to spray crops with pesticide.

"You have to keep spraying chemicals. If you don't kill the worm, you will end up penniless," he said.

FLUORIDE MAY DIMINISH KIDNEY AND LIVER FUNCTION IN ADOLESCENTS, STUDY SUGGESTS

Source: Press Release: The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine | August 8th, 2019

Location: United States, National USA

Fluoride exposure may lead to a reduction in kidney and liver function among adolescents, according to a study published by Mount Sinai researchers in Environment International in August.

The study examined the relationship between fluoride levels in drinking water and blood with kidney and liver health among adolescents participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a group of studies that assess health and nutritional well-being in the United States. The findings showed that exposure to fluoride may contribute to complex changes in kidney and liver function among youth in the United States, where 74 percent of public water systems add fluoride for dental health benefits. Fluoridated water is the main source of fluoride exposure in the U.S.. The findings also suggest that adolescents with poorer kidney or liver function may absorb more fluoride in their bodies.

While fluoride exposure in animals and adults has been associated with kidney and liver toxicity, this study examined potential effects of chronic low-level exposure among youth. This is important to study because a child’s body excretes only 45 percent of fluoride in urine via the kidneys, while an adult’s body clears it at a rate of 60 percent, and the kidneys accumulate more fluoride than any other organ in the body.

“While the dental benefits of fluoride are widely established, recent concerns have been raised regarding the appropriateness of its widespread addition to drinking water or salt in North America,” said the study’s first author Ashley J. Malin, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “This study’s findings suggest that there may be potential kidney and liver health concerns to consider when evaluating fluoride use and

Jeff Bennett BOH update

Jeff Bennett FB post: 
Absent from the Monday evening, August 12, 2019 board of health meeting; concerned residents about burned out homes in Town. Once again, if you have concerns and care, you cannot just be a face book commando. They only way to really get your concerns noticed, recorded and on the record, is to follow up and go to the meetings. The health agent / development services continues to work on these and may have made a small  step in dealing with one, but it is just a start. 

Again, one of these burned out properties has property taxes paid and is current. Another involves two owners with one wanting to sell and the other, not so much. As for concerns about someone getting injured and the town liable in someway by failing to act; the burned property on Pleasant Street is clearly marked with no trespassing signs.

That is really as much as there is for an update on those items.


Kevin Bird Comment:

Thank you for attending a Board of Health meeting. For those of us that are out of town making money to pay our taxes amongst other necessities, it is much appreciated that an elected official has taken the time to go and make enquiries based upon residents questions.

Facebook is a fantastic place to have discussions, bring up subjects, and potentially enable people to come to a consensus from the convenience of a remote location. You are right that it does not replace actual boots on the ground at a public meeting and that is why I am thankful that some people are afforded the time to make meetings when others cannot attend. As you walk into Templeton Town Hall and by the large wooden eagle let us remember that town resident volunteers saved the town both millions of dollars in cost and repayment of loans for the other plan in play at that time, 252 Baldwinville Road. Instead of spending millions, volunteers took it upon themselves to create a perfectly functional space for the Selectmen and Town offices. One of the only reasons that the town did not end up spending millions of dollars is because of a consensus that was formed on social media and then brought to action at Town meeting. So the genesis and affirmation of an idea formed outside of a public meeting can lead to real change made at a public meeting.