Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book, Silent Spring, exposed the dangers of pesticides on many bird species. Fortunately, the banning of many of these pesticides along with legislated protection of these species allowed birds, such as the peregrine falcon and bald eagle, to recover. But Latin America, eager to grow those fruits we crave in the dead in the winter, still use many of these banned pesticides. And now, ornithologists are blaming that for a serious decline in songbirds. According to an article that ran in The Independent (UK), “Ornithologists say another silent spring is dawning across the US as birds are being poisoned by toxic chemicals or killed as pests in their winter refuges across South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. They say that many species of songbird will never recover, and others may even become endangered or extinct if controls are not put in place or consumer habits changed.”
To read more, click here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/american-songbirds-are-being-wiped-out-by-banned-pesticides-804547.html
Clearly our love of out-of-season produce is just plum-loco!