Garlic Farmer Wards Off High-Speed Internet 475
DocVM writes "A Nova Scotia farmer is opposing the construction of a microwave tower for fear it will eventually mutate his organic garlic crop.
Lenny Levine, who has been planting and harvesting garlic by hand on his Annapolis Valley land since the 1970s, is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated if EastLink builds a microwave tower for wireless high-speed internet access a few hundred meters from his farm."
He should be so lucky (Score:4, Interesting)
Scientists and corporations around the world would buy his crop at many times market value, in order to both prove and disprove that the mutations were a result of the tower. What a disappointment it will be for him when the tower is built and his crop turns out just fine.
Re:Where's the proof? (Score:4, Interesting)
oh they dont need to know how and why. when my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer she decided to look into radical natural diet and exercise changes to try and avoid chemo and a mastectomy. growth halted in the tumors for well over a year, she lost weight, felt better than ever before.
good for her. she also got rid of her microwave oven. while she wont come right out and say it to most of the family, she believe the radiation can mutate food in the microwave and cause her body harm. wow.
Re:Where's the proof? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not possible. Only ionizing radiation can alter DNA.
Microwaves are not ionizing radiation. Not even remotely close, they're on the complete opposite side of the visible portion of the spectrum in fact.
From visible, you go to IR and then to RF (including microwaves)
To get to the wavelengths capable of altering DNA, you need to go the other way, through violet to UV (DNA damage), X-rays (more DNA damage!) and gamma (lots of DNA damage).
There's only one way I can describe this guy - fucking ignorant dumbass. The most likely thing to do DNA damage to his crops is the very sunlight his crops depend on to grow.
it's non-ionizing radiation (Score:4, Interesting)
If you're looking for something that will mutate cells, then try the UV rays from the Sun. Perhaps he should grow mushrooms if he is so paranoid about exposing vegetables to radiation?
Re:Scientific ignorance (Score:4, Interesting)
You've hit on one of my pet peeves man. Hell, DIAMONDS are oraganic, and so is pencil lead. They way these people use the term incorrectly drives me nuts.
Seriously.
I have a steering wheel attached to my belt now because of it.
Re:Scientific ignorance (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:He should be so lucky (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of http://german-bash.org/101161 [german-bash.org].
Short and translated version: the Telekom had built a cell phone mast in a village, and a lot of villagers started to complain about sleep problems and whatnot because of it. The comment of the Telekom was, "how bad must it get, when we actually turn it on" :p
Re:Side note (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't an American problem exclusively. Related to this is the scare about "zomg genetically modified organisms!", which is much worse in Europe.
I helped gather data for a study, incidentally, comparing GM and ordinary cotton. The GM cotton had a gene expressing the BT toxin in it, a protein that fucks up caterpillars who eat it rather royally but is harmless to pretty much everything else. The farmers were told to not do anything special with their fields, to use pesticides as normal, etc. (This meant more use of pesticide on the non-GM cotton, obviously.)
Then I wander through the fields and sample the insect population by species. The conventional cotton was something of a wasteland -- here's a lonely little spider, looking for dinner; there are a few ants; here are a shitload of aphids, which are resistant to insecticide.
The GM cotton had a whole pile of bugs, all running around happily eating each other.
GM crops can be *better* for the environment. After all, the BT gene is just a way of putting a pesticide only harmful to a narrow range of insects *into* the crop, so only pests that actually eat it will die. This is a whole lot more targeted than crop-dusting the field with something that'll kill anything that moves with more than four legs. Monsanto's abuse of the patent system is another matter altogether, of course.
Re:Speaking of idiots... (Score:4, Interesting)
From the article: "...is afraid his organic crop could be irradiated..." That's not the same as "is afraid microwave radiation will be increased above acceptable levels". The statement suggests that he is worried about radiation in general (not this specific kind of radiation).
The statement you quoted was made by the writer of the article, not by the farmer. The only direct quotes from him are: "I think over a period of time it will change the DNA of the garlic because it shakes up the molecules" and "I view it with dread, fear and panic. I don't want to grow food under those conditions", neither of which indicate he's afraid of radiation in general.
Re:Idiots (Score:3, Interesting)