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--Apple-Mail-1-966133553 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed Op-Ed Contributor Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird? By BRIDGET STUTCHBURY Published: March 30, 2008 (New York Times) Woodbridge, Ontario Olaf Hajek THOUGH a consumer may not be able to tell the difference, a striking=20 red and blue Thomas the Tank Engine made in Wisconsin is not the same=20 as one manufactured in China =97 the paint on the Chinese twin may=20 contain dangerous levels of lead. In the same way, a plump red tomato=20 from Florida is often not the same as one grown in Mexico. The imported=20= fruits and vegetables found in our shopping carts in winter and early=20 spring are grown with types and amounts of pesticides that would often=20= be illegal in the United States. In this case, the victims are North American songbirds. Bobolinks,=20 called skunk blackbirds in some places, were once a common sight in the=20= Eastern United States. In mating season, the male in his handsome=20 tuxedo-like suit sings deliriously as he whirrs madly over the=20 hayfields. Bobolink numbers have plummeted almost 50 percent in the=20 last four decades, according to the North American Breeding Bird=20 Survey. The birds are being poisoned on their wintering grounds by highly toxic=20= pesticides. Rosalind Renfrew, a biologist at the Vermont Center for=20 Ecostudies, captured bobolinks feeding in rice fields in Bolivia and=20 took samples of their blood to test for pesticide exposure. She found=20 that about half of the birds had drastically reduced levels of=20 cholinesterase, an enzyme that affects brain and nerve cells =97 a sign=20= of exposure to toxic chemicals. Since the 1980s, pesticide use has increased fivefold in Latin America=20= as countries have expanded their production of nontraditional crops to=20= fuel the demand for fresh produce during winter in North America and=20 Europe. Rice farmers in the region use monocrotophos, methamidophos and=20= carbofuran, all agricultural chemicals that are rated Class I toxins by=20= the World Health Organization, are highly toxic to birds, and are=20 either restricted or banned in the United States. In countries like=20 Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador, researchers have found that farmers=20 spray their crops heavily and repeatedly with a chemical cocktail of=20 dangerous pesticides. In the mid-1990s, American biologists used satellite tracking to follow=20= Swainson=92s hawks to their wintering grounds in Argentina, where=20 thousands of them were found dead from monocrotophos poisoning.=20 Migratory songbirds like bobolinks, barn swallows and Eastern kingbirds=20= are suffering mysterious population declines, and pesticides may well=20 be to blame. A single application of a highly toxic pesticide to a=20 field can kill seven to 25 songbirds per acre. About half the birds=20 that researchers capture after such spraying are found to suffer from=20 severely depressed neurological function. Migratory birds, modern-day canaries in the coal mine, reveal an=20 environmental problem hidden to consumers. Testing by the United States=20= Food and Drug Administration shows that fruits and vegetables imported=20=
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