| In Punjab, India, cancer rates are worse in farming villages that use more pesticides, researchers found. This is according to NPR's fantastic continuing coverage of the failure of the Green Revolution (the introduction of industrial ag around the world).
A farmer named Jarnail Singh noticed a connection between pesticides and cancer and he got a university to research the issue:
Singh says he noticed one of the first troubling clues in the late 1980s and early '90s: Peacocks - India's national bird - disappeared from the fields. Over the years, seven people in his family got cancer - and three of them died. People in Jajjal and surrounding villages got cancer, too.
The researchers confirmed his hunch. Areas with heavy pesticide use have significantly higher rates of cancer. That does not yet prove that the pesticides are to blame, but it is enough of a link to make you worry. In the meantime, the rural Punjab population continues to line up to ride the "cancer train" - the train that takes them to the area's regional cancer center. |
