Microplastics

hoyboy

Member
Have microplastics been shown to cause a health problem in humans or wildlife?

Just because we can detect that they are there shouldn't be a huge concern if they are harmless. Why should plastic, being a fairly inert substance be any different from any other inert micro particles that are all around us?

Not that I'm endorsing widespread pollution by plastic waste. I f*cking hate bale wrap 😂 gets round everything and wrecks oil seals. Wouldn't be too bothered if I never saw another wrapped bale again!
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
Have microplastics been shown to cause a health problem in humans or wildlife?

Just because we can detect that they are there shouldn't be a huge concern if they are harmless. Why should plastic, being a fairly inert substance be any different from any other inert micro particles that are all around us?

Not that I'm endorsing widespread pollution by plastic waste. I f*cking hate bale wrap 😂 gets round everything and wrecks oil seals. Wouldn't be too bothered if I never saw another wrapped bale again!


These studies suggest a significant amount of harm occurs at levels currently judged "safe".
 
Sewage sludge not allowed on veg and some other crops
But does that have anything to do with micro plastic?
And is that just immediately prior to growing certain crops or can it be used elsewhere in a rotation?

I don’t know but I’m guessing the public don’t like the idea of their.......or possibly worse still someone else’s sh!t being used to grow the food they eat, after all , many don’t like dirty carrots, spuds etc with a bit of soil on them
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
But does that have anything to do with micro plastic?
And is that just immediately prior to growing certain crops or can it be used elsewhere in a rotation?

I don’t know but I’m guessing the public don’t like the idea of their.......or possibly worse still someone else’s sh!t being used to grow the food they eat, after all , many don’t like dirty carrots, spuds etc with a bit of soil on them

My understanding is it's just immediately prior, no manure or grazing of any kind. Retailers are concerned about the minute possibility of e coli in foods people may eat raw.
 
Ultimately, like every existential threat, it's politics. The GP have been pushing this issue up the political agenda for years. Just one example of why, despite so much cr@p written on here, they are the only party that are truly on the side of farmers.

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-01-05/hl5085

https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/...alling-for-more-ambitious-policy-on-plastics/

Alright, Alright George, we'll start taking the green party more seriously.
 

melted welly

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
DD9.
But does that have anything to do with micro plastic?
And is that just immediately prior to growing certain crops or can it be used elsewhere in a rotation?

I don’t know but I’m guessing the public don’t like the idea of their.......or possibly worse still someone else’s sh!t being used to grow the food they eat, after all , many don’t like dirty carrots, spuds etc with a bit of soil on them

I reckon that’s the next level after pretend meat, go after soil engaging veg on that exact premise. Why eat something grown in “dirt” with all that fungus, bacteria and microbes crawling over it when you can have this alternative, grown in a sterile vertical farm in an old railway tunnel? Land will become for energy production, waste disposal and leisure. Food will be produced, not grown. Land will become unsuitable for food production. That will be an oddity practised by weirdos, hippies and museums.

I personally feel the over simplification of nature will be the ultimate downfall of humanity. It is impossible to replicate all the tiny interactions of nature (bacterial, fungal, microbial, solar etc) when growing plants, we can mimic what we know about in order to produce something that looks similar, but we will never fully understand it all. Our food is less nutritious now than 50/60/70 years ago because we use artificial inputs to mask poor soil management and produce bulk. We also (as a society) rely on pharmaceutical companies to pick up the slack of our bad food, be it type 2 diabetes, allergies, vitamin supplements, statins etc etc…..

We as growers/producers are paid by bulk, so long as that bulk averages over a certain standard, we’re good. Nutritional value is of little relevance to what we do. We have not replaced the environmental micro-interactions, that should take place as plants grow, we’ve done the equivalent of appeasing hunger by eating a biscuit, short term solutions. But why would we bother trying to produce anything more nutritious, there is no premium, better to produce a 10t/ha crop of feed wheat than a crop of crooked, dumpy organic veggies that no one wants because the shiny uniformly shaped ones look better and are cheaper.

By “we” I don’t exclusively mean just farmers; govt, science, retail, processors, consumers, we all make choices predominantly/exclusively based on £££££ and to all of our ultimate detriment, and to the benefit only of those already in the preferential situations.

Don’t know what the answer is, I don’t think it is ultimately fixable for the majority of people, things are too far gone down this path, too much power in too few hands. If they want to spread their shite, literally and metaphorically, upon agriculture, it will be made to happen.

As someone keeps telling us - “market share is the root of all evil” and we don’t really listen, do we?

@delilah
 

stroller

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Somerset UK
Wish I had listened to mine. Just walking lambing fields picking the odd bit up hear and there just about filled an old fashioned dust bin. That's not just thrown in, that's pushed down. About half could be farm plastic but a cutlery tray? in the middle of a field. Also in the rough grazing found what would have been a trampoline, that's half a mile from nearest house, and much farther from a road so must have been airborn to reach there.
Read on a news feed last week that there is a natural bug/yeast/enzyme or summat that breaks down plastics in a fairly short time frame (months). Now that could be a saviour, or it could be interesting how life as we know it would cope if this is an uncontrollable organism. Maybe some of "Science Fiction" may come true.;):unsure:
If a plastic eating bug didget loose in the 'wild' the world human built infrastructure would literally start falling apart, including may farm gates.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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