Well… the state decided to take our tax dollars and purchase fleets of dump trucks (with a base price of more than $100,000 each) and equip them with high velocity raptor-style guns that will spray 30+ feet at the flip of a switch.
The state then shelled out additional tax money to permanently affix 7,000-gallon reservoirs to contain the millions of pounds of herbicides that will annihilate every last stand of wildflowers across the Natural State’s highway easements before ending up in our water table.
Roundup retails for anywhere from $20 – 70 per gallon depending on concentration, and my question is how much does it cost us to fill up just one of those 7,000 gallon reservoirs? By my math, there is no way this is cost effective to Arkansans.
The reasons the city, county, and state highway departments all over Arkansas admit to using these insane amounts of chemicals is for safety to motorists and cost effectiveness. Since we just debunked the cost factor (native seeds require zero mowing would be cheaper), let’s move on to safety.
These herbicides are designed to kill, plain and simple. They kill the fungi/mycelium within the soil, meaning these herbicides kill the bonding agent of the dirt. Throw in some rain, and we’re left with rocks and gravel. Have you ever hit gravel at 50 mph? How about on a sport bike or cruiser? Safety is not what crosses my mind.
Not to mention the excessive use of herbicides is undermining the terrain surrounding the roads – that’s why bases of guardrails and signs and under the roads themselves are eroding.
Let’s touch on human health effects and safety. These chemicals are ending up in our water reservoirs (the Corps of Engineers drenches the entire perimeter of rip-rap around the dam with herbicides) and our bodies are literally being used as biological filters.
This chemical, glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, is in 93% of Americans’ urine. You most likely have Monsanto’s Roundup pumping through your bloodstream. Scared?
Adverse health effects to these chemicals compound with every generation. Need more proof? Just look to Monsanto’s herbicide Agent Orange. Vietnamese today are experiencing worse health effects than they did in the ‘70s.
However, Monsanto & the AHTD seem to care not, because we taxpayers will inevitably foot the bill for their lack of oversight. Similar to how we’re still compensating (as we should be) Vietnamese & American Veterans for their exposure to Monsanto’s Agent Orange in the ‘60s.
When dealing with herbicides, the bottom line is weed resistance to herbicides is on the rise due to repeated overuse and the introduction of GMOs. Weeds have a short lifecycle, and by the process of evolution, coupled with the insane rate the state is applying these herbicides these “weeds” are able to adapt resistance, and they’re doing it fast.
We are just now finding out the detrimental health effects of Roundup, but due to the plants’ biological ability to evolve and become resistant, the state is now using arsenic-based chemicals.
Bottom line is this method of vegetation maintenance is not sustainable, not safe, and not cost effective, so the state needs to stop lying to us. We know Obama appointed Mike Taylor, a former Monsanto executive as deputy commissioner of the FDA, and now Trump hired Andrew Wheeler, a former oil lobbyist to head the EPA.
Do these state officials work for us, or are they simply pushing product? Remember Upton Sinclair once said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
It may be difficult to get the U.S. EPA Director on the phone, but we can change protocol by starting locally. Contact: ArDOT Asst. Chief Engineer, Little Rock, Tony Sullivan (501) 569-2000; ArDOT Maintenance Director, Benton & Carroll County, Bobby Keaton (870) 743-2100.
Sam Scapes