Fifteen Midwest towns and cities have filed suit against the manufacturer of Atrazine a chemical that is used on cornfields. Despite being banned by the European Union years ago tens of millions of pounds are used in the US every year on corn and other crops.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois by 16 cities in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and Iowa. The communities allege that Swiss corporation Syngenta AG and its Delaware counterpart Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. reaped billions of dollars from the sale of atrazine while local taxpayers were left with the financial burden of filtering the chemical from drinking water."
The EPA won't restrict it's use.
"In America, though, farmers continue to spray the weed-killer heavily on corn, sugarcane and other crops throughout the country. As a result, some portion of the more than 60 million pounds of atrazine applied annually makes its way into streams, rivers, lakes and drinking water supplies. The problem is at its worst in the spring, when atrazine is applied most heavily, then washed by rain into waterways."
This is a classic example of the true cost not being reflected. Cheap corn is not cheap. If companies had to pay the cost of what they pump into the environment corn would need to be even more subsidized more than it already is.
We give the subsidies and pay to clean up their mess. What do you think the true cost of those one dollar McDonald’s hamburgers is?
