The term eco-friendly is usually not associated with terms like extortion, intimidation, harassment, and lewd behavior. But there is a dirty underside to the green movement.

Several incidents have come to light in the past week that show a different side to the environmental movement than most folks see. Most in the green movement come off as sensitive, caring individuals who only want to do what is right for the earth. And, for many, this is the case.

However, some of the more radical elements of the movement will stop at nothing to enforce their eco-agenda. These eco-zealots try to hide behind a pastoral green facade, but you do not have to look too deeply to find the truth.

The battle over atrazine is a prime example of an environmental movement that gives no quarter. When Jere White, executive director of the Kansas Corn Growers Assoc., testified before an EPA hearing on atrazine, he became a target for harassment and intimidation by environmentalists.

White recently testified before the Senate Ag Committee that environmental law firms have hounded him for depositions and demanded he supply reams of paperwork.

“Growers and associations like ours that have provided comments and support for atrazine are now being targeted by the activist trial attorneys. We’ve been hit with subpoenas for massive, expensive and time-consuming production of records unrelated to any litigation. We are being harassed, even bullied, for daring to defend ourselves. The message is clear: If you stand up for atrazine, you’d best be prepared to pay a price,” White testified.
According to White, after his testimony at the EPA hearing, “The very next day, activist attorneys sought and obtained subpoenas against Kansas Corn, Kansas Grain Sorghum and me personally.”
What was it that White said to warrant this kind of treatment? White focused his testimony on atrazine as a safe herbicide used by American farmers for the past 50 years.

He emphasized that atrazine is one of the most studied molecules on Earth and stressed that, for many farmers, the herbicide is a matter of staying in business during a difficult economy. According to the EPA’s own analysis, the removal of atrazine could cost farmers up to $28 an acre.

“Most farmers live next to their fields,” White said. “They raise their children in these environments. If there were any real harm in atrazine, the American farmer would have been the first to notice and the first to care. They value atrazine because it is effective and it is safe. That’s why well over half of all U.S. corn acres are protected from weeds by atrazine.”

Anti-atrazine researchers have been scrambling to confuse the issue with a variety of studies and theories. Yet, the actions of one such researcher calls into question the legitimacy of such research.
Tyrone Hayes is a University of California at Berkeley researcher whose research to ban atrazine is certainly prolific. But Hayes has also spent a lot of time on something else - writing bizarre and harassing e-mails to those on the other side of the atrazine argument.

Employees of Syngenta and others, including EPA staffers, have been receiving strange e-mails from Hayes for several years. Syngenta is the primary manufacturer of atrazine.

The company recently filed an ethics complaint with UC Berkeley about Hayes’ communications. Syngenta said Hayes has sent their employees e-mails that are “aggressive, unprofessional and insulting, but also salacious and lewd.”

The e-mails are taunting, harassing and sexually explicit in nature, according to the complaint. But more important than this scandal is the fact that Dr. Hayes’s research has been discredited and called “worthless” by other researchers and even the EPA.

White says these tactics are nothing more than eco-bullying, “We can’t imagine what kind of useful information they hope to find by looking through membership records, leadership programs, or who paid for the ice cream at a farmer’s meeting. But the threat of legal harassment might make an organization or an individual think twice about standing up for a product like atrazine.”

The real danger of course is if they are successful with atrazine, no other aspect of agriculture will be safe.

Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are calling on the White House to tighten the leash on EPA and lessen the influence of radical environmentalists who seem to have free reign in the administration. Science and common sense had better return to the green movement before it puts the American economy in the red.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.