The Voice of Rachel Carson
Artist Shelly Salter
In her book Silent Spring, Biologist Rachel Carson made the world aware of the horrors of DDT and other chemicals during an era that advertised “better living though chemistry”. She warned that Small doses of chemicals in our food and water, although considered “safe” could have a greater effect over time than just a few large doses would produce, and that no one knows what the long term effects of
these chemicals and their many lethal combinations might be.
One billion pounds of synthetic chemicals we were being producing in 1940. By 1980 it had increased
to 500 billion pounds.
Today Petroleum chemicals are in our soft drinks, chewing gums, hair dyes, lotions, cosmetics, meat, dairy and fast foods. They are sprayed on our food crops, fed and injected into the animals that we consume. Fluoride is dumped into our drinking water supplies even though many scientists refute its dental benefits and link it to bone cancer, thyroid problems, fluorosis, lower I.Q. and ADD. Adolf Hitler used fluoride to make his prisoners “stupid and more docile to authority” and fluoride is widely used in the manufacture of tranquilizers. It seems absurd that we would pay the chemical industry to dispose of their toxic waste by adding it to our water supply! But that is exactly what we are doing. We are poisoning our own food and water supplies and we are paying for it with our tax dollars and our health.
These chemical additives have made the chemical industry the richest and most powerful entity in the world. Powerful enough to get cloned-cow milk hastily approved by the FDA without any long-term testing or labeling required. Genetically altered foods (GMO’s) now make up 75% of the food at your local grocery store. We no longer know what we are eating or drinking.
Rachel Carson died of breast cancer before she could finish her work. While doing my portrait of Rachel, I heard her soft voice whisper “the only SAFE dose of poison is a ZERO dose”. We need to listen to Rachel once again.
The good news is that we can turn things around. We have two very strong weapons, BUYING POWER and a VOTE.
Tell your Congressman to support legislation for safe water and Food sources by speaking directly to his or her legislative director at 202-224-3121. Read more at www.EWG.org or my website www.shellysalter.com
Berkson, Lindsey D. Hormone Deception. Chicago, IL: NTC p, 2000 Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin p, 1962. Fitzgerald, Randall. The Hundred Year Lie. New York: Dutton, 2006. Informationliberation.com