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Last year I had a jarring experience driving through some of the agricultural land near the Salton Sea en route to Bombay Beach coming down from JTNP, taking ba

Last year I had a jarring experience driving through some of the agricultural land near the Salton Sea en route to Bombay Beach coming down from JTNP, taking back roads. The general region is desert, water and food is scarce, but through this agricultural zone there's this dense pocket of food and water on the surface. I was in a Miata with the top down, and the amount of chemicals they were using to keep the pests/insects away from this lush green oasis in a land of nothing was noxious. I hadn't exited my car, just drove through these fields on the farm roads, and it left me feeling sick with a headache and nausea well into the next day. Of course I didn't encounter a single insect, spotless windshield.

sickygnar 5y ago
I've done the same drive, thru the farmland and cattle ranches to the south of the salton sea by Brawley. God it was noxious. Despite the sea having a reputation for an awful smell, it didn't compare to the farmland below. My throat hurts thinking about it. You sometimes get a similar effect in the san joaquin valley.
BobbyJo 5y ago
Drove through Texas agricultural land in spring of 2016. Windows up, not a convertible, and I was still horribly affected for 2 weeks. My eyes and nose burned the moment we started driving by the fields, and my nose continued to run and drain for 2 weeks after.
- pengaru 5y ago
  I believe it, but being Texas I imagine you drove through a much larger area. The distance I traveled through this poison was relatively little: https://goo.gl/maps/v7MQNgpffP2wNCrc7 https://goo.gl/maps/v7MQNgpffP2wNCrc7 It was Box Canyon S down to 111E, stair stepping a bit through the fields...
  - ChainOfFools 5y ago
    The name of that road is extraordinary appropriate, though, so I imagine under the right conditions it could trap and concentrate quite a lot of the aerosolized chemicals from the croplands it opens onto just south. While on the twisties through the namesake canyon you could have been blasted with several times the concentration found in the open air above the fields themselves.
    - pengaru 5y ago
      The canyon road snaking up through the mountains was odorless, only the roads immediately through the fields were noxious... but it wasn't a windy day.
TaylorAlexander 5y ago
Yes it’s very bad and it doesn’t have to be that way. The mass chemical use must be profitable but there is a great cost to the land and the environment to do so. This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s good for them. EDIT: He's also buying up all the farm land with water rights in the USA. He is the single largest holder of US farmland. So when drought inevitably comes and swaths of farmland become too dry to use, he will profit. If you apply to one of their foundation grants for agriculture, you will see a big emphasis on "bundled services", so they seem to want to build a "farm as a service" system where farmers don't own anything. It's a new enclosure movement where the lords own everything and everyone else pays them to use the land. We have enough in this world we can live pretty cheaply if we work together and share in the right ways. But control of the land is vital or we will all die in poverty from rents.
- Kye 5y ago
  Lex Luthor's mistake was causing the disaster he planned to profit from rather than preparing to profit from one that was inevitable in his lifetime.
  - TaylorAlexander 5y ago
    Or just... being focused on profit instead of mutual support of others.
    - Kye 5y ago
      Comic book villains aren't known for having complex motivations.
- 0x0nyandesu 5y ago
  What exactly is he going to really profit on? Guy is 65. Has said he's not leaving much to his kids. So I guess it's all going to a trust????
scrose 5y ago
For anyone unfamiliar with the history of the Salton sea and the effect all these chemicals have had on the surrounding areas, check out this documentary: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8TjGAWxL23c https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8TjGAWxL23c A part of me wants to visit just to fully take in the reality of it all. But I don’t think my family would be too happy.
sizzle 5y ago
How much of these crap chemicals are we consuming?

sickygnar 5y ago

I've done the same drive, thru the farmland and cattle ranches to the south of the salton sea by Brawley. God it was noxious. Despite the sea having a reputation for an awful smell, it didn't compare to the farmland below. My throat hurts thinking about it. You sometimes get a similar effect in the san joaquin valley.

BobbyJo 5y ago

Drove through Texas agricultural land in spring of 2016. Windows up, not a convertible, and I was still horribly affected for 2 weeks. My eyes and nose burned the moment we started driving by the fields, and my nose continued to run and drain for 2 weeks after.

pengaru 5y ago
I believe it, but being Texas I imagine you drove through a much larger area. The distance I traveled through this poison was relatively little: https://goo.gl/maps/v7MQNgpffP2wNCrc7 https://goo.gl/maps/v7MQNgpffP2wNCrc7 It was Box Canyon S down to 111E, stair stepping a bit through the fields...
- ChainOfFools 5y ago
  The name of that road is extraordinary appropriate, though, so I imagine under the right conditions it could trap and concentrate quite a lot of the aerosolized chemicals from the croplands it opens onto just south. While on the twisties through the namesake canyon you could have been blasted with several times the concentration found in the open air above the fields themselves.
  - pengaru 5y ago
    The canyon road snaking up through the mountains was odorless, only the roads immediately through the fields were noxious... but it wasn't a windy day.

TaylorAlexander 5y ago

Yes it’s very bad and it doesn’t have to be that way. The mass chemical use must be profitable but there is a great cost to the land and the environment to do so. This is why it is so upsetting that Bill Gates is pushing this kind of chemical intensive farming all over Africa and positioning himself to profit off the transition too. Once again harming the continent and its people for profit while telling them it’s good for them. EDIT: He's also buying up all the farm land with water rights in the USA. He is the single largest holder of US farmland. So when drought inevitably comes and swaths of farmland become too dry to use, he will profit. If you apply to one of their foundation grants for agriculture, you will see a big emphasis on "bundled services", so they seem to want to build a "farm as a service" system where farmers don't own anything. It's a new enclosure movement where the lords own everything and everyone else pays them to use the land. We have enough in this world we can live pretty cheaply if we work together and share in the right ways. But control of the land is vital or we will all die in poverty from rents.

Kye 5y ago
Lex Luthor's mistake was causing the disaster he planned to profit from rather than preparing to profit from one that was inevitable in his lifetime.
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  Or just... being focused on profit instead of mutual support of others.
  - Kye 5y ago
    Comic book villains aren't known for having complex motivations.
0x0nyandesu 5y ago
What exactly is he going to really profit on? Guy is 65. Has said he's not leaving much to his kids. So I guess it's all going to a trust????

scrose 5y ago

For anyone unfamiliar with the history of the Salton sea and the effect all these chemicals have had on the surrounding areas, check out this documentary: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8TjGAWxL23c https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8TjGAWxL23c A part of me wants to visit just to fully take in the reality of it all. But I don’t think my family would be too happy.

sizzle 5y ago

How much of these crap chemicals are we consuming?