Comments on: Contaminated Manure & Fertilisers

By: John

John — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:58:52 +0000

Geoff – and everyone else – I totally understand your upset and anger. The fact is that this is a licensed product – thank you DEFRA. DOW have obeyed the law. Geoff is right that there would be lots of litigation in the states (and rich lawyers) but sadly DOW have followed the rules here in the UK.
DEFRA has, in my opinion, become an organisation that benefits the big companies, the big farmers and not the public or the environment.

By: geoff church

geoff church — Sun, 01 May 2011 09:55:52 +0000

Thank you Dow “AgroScience”. My allotment is ruined, my front garden is ruined and the vegetable plot in my back garden is ruined. Yes, manure contaminated with your product (aminopyralid) is still around in May 2011 and it’s still wrecking peoples’ hard work. You would not get away with this in the USA – you would be facing a class action lawsuit, with the prospect of forking out huge sums of money in compensation – and I think it should happen here in England.
A few months ago I spent some days getting what I thought was really nice well-rotted manure from a well-run local stables (over 50 sacks of the stuff). It was spread liberally over the allotment that my wife has been working so hard on, and on our new front garden, in preparation for planting – and all over our vegetable plot in the back garden.
The allotment potatoes came up – but they looked diseased. Last night I googled it and guess what I have found!…. Yes, Dow ‘AgroScience’, your product is in my manure and therefore throughout my land.
Potatoes are not the only things to have been affected. Many other plants have either died, or not come up, or are just sitting weakly in the ground.
Having read other posts, I cannot eat any crop I have grown, for fear of the consequences. ‘Dow’ says that their herbicide is pretty harmless to humans, but how can I TRUST a company that put this poison on the market in the way it did? It’s not hard to see that if you allow AMINOPYRALID into horse pastures, or into fields that will be used for straw for horse bedding IT WILL GET INTO HORSE MANURE. If it gets into horse manure, inevitably it gets into allotments and gardens.
So, either Dow ‘AgroScience’ didn’t do their research properly (or even their basic thinking), in which case they are responsible, or they put the product onto the market KNOWING what the consequences would be, in which case they are also responsible. Either way, Dow ‘AgroScience’ – YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.
I feel that this company should be taken to court to compensate all the people whose hard work it has ruined. What does anyone else think?

By: wendy wilson

wendy wilson — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:58:03 +0000

Hi I have just finished the backbreaking and very expensive job of tackling my new allotment and Guess what broad beans stunted and deformed climbing beans just going yellow and dying peas not looking right as a newbie It took a while for the penny to drop but I guess aminopyralid is to blame weather through the bought in compost or through the small amounts of manure or the hay mulch I am gutted and as the full time carer for my two disabled grandchildren who the organic fresh veggies were destined for What now all that work and time and money I am truly gutted

By: John

John — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:07:22 +0000

Hi Michele – you seem to have missed the point of my warning. If the paddock has been treated, often by a contractor, with selective herbicide containing aminopyralid, this is bound to the lignin in the grass.
When the pony or horse digests the grass, it releases the aminopyralid which is excreted in the urine and thereby contaminates the manure.
So unless the stable can guarantee the horses haven’t grazed on treated grass, then you need to test for contamination prior to using.
It’s not a ‘blame’ thing, many stable owners had no idea what had been used on their paddocks.

By: Michele

Michele — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:26:01 +0000

I have just come back from doing one of my daily jobs which is clearing the paddock which my daughters pony lives in of droppings. These are ususally put on the muck heap. Some are sacked up and given to my brother in law for his veg. garden. My point is, horses and ponies aren’t given the same sort of chemicals as farm animals and most people I know would be delighted for someone to take away some of the by-products produced by their four-legged friends. In particular, did you know that larger stables etc often have to pay someone to come and take it away? Maybe a group of allotment growers could help out some local horse-owners in this way, perhaps in return for a few carrots! Definately worth asking.