Sludge Watch ==> Financial Improprieties at Sludge Farm - Idaho

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

The Idaho Statesman

May 27, 2006 Saturday

FINANCIAL IMPROPRIETIES AT CITY FARM SPARK CHANGES


The City of Boise announced Friday new purchasing, accounting and management 
rules in response to spending  ir-regularities discovered at the city-owned 
Twenty-Mile South Farm. ("Man pleads guilty to misusing city  resources," 
May 12). The new policies, coupled with criminal prosecution of two former 
farm employees, send a  strong message that misuse of public funds will not 
be tolerated, Mayor David Bieter said.

Accounting and management  changes at the farm include a new on-site manager 
who will oversee operations; more detailed purchasing procedures and  more 
staff training on the procedures; annual inspection of farm assets; new 
leases for the farm supervisor's  house, grazing land and feedlots that more 
clearly delineate responsibilities of the city and lessees. A former farm  
employee, David C. Skinner, pleaded guilty earlier this month to misdemeanor 
theft for illegally diverting taxpayer  resources to his own benefit.

Skinner was sentenced to six months in jail, which the judge suspended 
conditioned on  Skinner's completion of two years of probation and payment 
of more than $3,000 in restitu-tion, plus court costs. A   second former 
farm employee, Brad Holmes, has been charged with improper splitting of 
bids, a misdemeanor. His trial is   scheduled for August. The 3,965-acre 
Twenty-Mile South Farm, near the intersection of Cloverdale and Nicholson 
roads  east of Kuna, utilizes the biosolids from Boise wastewater treatment 
plants as fertilizer and as a soil amendment. The  farm produces alfalfa, 
corn silage and small grain crops such as barley and wheat, primarily used 
as livestock feed.

...........................................................
Sludgewatch Admin:

Like that little coda at the end of the story: 'primarily' used as livestock 
feed.  'Secondarily' used as what?  Human food.....

The sludge industry / regulators (can you tell them apart?) likes to repeat 
that sludged crops are not for human consumption. This is simply not true.  
For instance humans eat barley and wheat.  And indeed, Canadian wheat is at 
risk from sludge.  Our famous spring durham wheat is already so high in 
cadmium that if you sourced your bread and pasta from Canadian spring durham 
wheat you are likely to have excessive levels of cadmium in your diet.  And 
indeed, Canadians have excessive levels of cadmium in their diet and in 
their bodies.

It has been estimated that, in 1982, Canada produced 890 tonnes of cadmium 
and consumed approximately 34 tonnes.

So since sludge spikes the soil with so much more cadmium, it hardly makes 
sense to exacerbate the problem with sludge use.

As the World Health Organization moves to lower the daily tolerable limit of 
cadmium, Canadian durham spring wheat becomes increasingly unacceptable in 
the marketplace due to high cadmium levels.  Researcher John Clarke has 
created a variety of wheat that takes up less cadmium.  This wheat will come 
to replace our other varieties.

But if we continue to increase the level of cadmium in the soil through 
sludge use, and contaminated phosphate fertilizers,  then  weeds, 
grasslands, forests, home gardens will become increasingly cadmium 
polluted...impacting wildlife and humans.


..........................................

http://www.westerngrains.com/news/ir_312b.html

What’s cadmium got to do with it?

Reducing the cadmium uptake in durum wheat meets an international trend over 
the past 20 years toward reducing overall dietary intake of this unneeded 
and unwanted metallic trace element, which is present in air, water, soil 
and foodstuffs.

Naturally found in the earth’s crust, cadmium, which comes from the Latin 
cadmia fornacum or zinc flowers, has a useful role in manufacturing, but 
isn’t needed for the growth and well-being of plants or animals.

While all grains – and most plants for that matter – contain some cadmium, 
modern durum wheats have a genetic inclination toward increased cadmium 
uptake, more so than other wheat classes, notes durum breeder Dr. John 
Clarke.

After identifying the gene that influences cadmium uptake in older durum 
lines, Clarke used conventional breeding techniques to move the gene into 
improved, higher yielding lines. DT712 has about 50 percent less cadmium 
compared to other durum varieties.

“Cadmium levels in durum pose no risk to human health,” says Clarke. “All 
our wheats are safe. But since cadmium is a heavy metal humans are exposed 
to from a variety of sources, it was felt reduced levels in grain products 
would help in the overall reduction in dietary intake.”

European standards for cadmium levels in whole cereal grains, for example, 
set the maximum allowable level at 200 parts per billion (ppb). “Most of our 
durum crop is under that maximum,” Clarke says. “Most samples range from 100 
to 150 ppb.” And now DT712 and other varieties that follow will be half of 
these current levels. Although established Canadian varieties are well 
within existing standards, there is talk among international health 
organizations of lowering world standards to perhaps 100 ppb. “Our work has 
been in anticipation of new standards,” he says.