Many activists, politicians and regulators believe our Earth and its wild kingdoms are threatened by fossil fuels, conventional farming, modern living standards, and catastrophic climate change resulting from the aforementioned human activities. Many promote these fears to gain ever-greater control over energy and economic systems, circumscribe personal freedoms, and silence questions and dissent.
Few of them could likely hunt, gather or grow sufficient food for their families, or be a lucky protagonist in an episode of the Weather Channel's Could You Survive? series – much less endure Mary Draper Ingles' harrowing 800-mile walk through the 1755 wilderness to escape captivity by Shawnee Indians.
Yet they are strident in their opposition to synthetic conventional herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers, and unbending in their mistaken belief that organic farmers don't use pesticides – or at least none that aren't safe for people and wildlife. They ignore the widespread use of "natural, organic" chemicals like copper sulfate, which is toxic to humans, deadly to fish, harmful to avian and mammalian reproductive systems, poisonous to sheep and chickens, and highly persistent and bio-accumulative in soil and water.
