Extinction Level Event (8 page)

Miles lead the four USDA inspectors through his
farmland, showing them the damage allegedly caused by his use of
the new herbicide. The team took quick note of the dead worms all
over the soil; thousands of little dead bodies spread across the
farm, under bushels of corn, next to potato tubules, and around
strawberry plants. Mark kneels down to scoop some up in his hand,
turning the worm over looking for any outward signs for the cause
of this unexpected mass death. “We’ll need to bring the equipment
in, start taking samples, running tests”, he states morosely. Mike
nodded his head in reply.
This is really weird. Although we
should be prepared for anything.
“I’ve never seen anything like
this before. “Well, sometimes we get these pesticides that kill a
certain species of bug but this is odd. Earthworms?” Mark and
Laurie turn and head for the van. Peter LaJoy turns around, giving
Mike a knowing-kind of look. “That’s exactly what I said when I got
here. Do you think we should quarantine the area?” Hearing that
statement, an alarmed expression comes over Miles’ face.
“Quarantine?? You don’t really need to. I mean, it's just a
herbicide. If it's in the water already, there’s nothing you can do
about it. C’mon, you don’t need to quarantine”. “That depends”,
replies LaJoy. Mike looks carefully at the two men before replying.
“We’ll see what we find. If there is any indication that this could
spread, though, we should definitely quarantine. Although- If you
used Groundup SuperPower, I’m assuming you’re not the only one who
used it?” LaJoy replied, pointing a finger to the east, “Actually
no. There’s this lady over there who also has this problem. She
said she used the same herbicide for her home garden.”

Mike thought for a moment. “Are you saying the worms
are dying because of the herbicide? We could have this problem
everywhere if that is the case! If everyone starts using this
herbicide, this could be really messy. We have to make sure that is
the cause of this problem though, before we can take any other
action. We need conclusive evidence”. “I agree. I’ll send our LA
office this information, keep them updated on our situation. You
three, meanwhile, start digging." Laurie comes walking back across
the field, handing Mike a pair of latex gloves and a box with
equipment. Mike sees Mark collecting worms and putting them into
plastic zip-lock bags. “We’ll need soil samples as well”, Laurie
tells Miles. “Sure. Do whatever you need to. Just tell me that
it'll be over soon.” Laurie starts taking soil matter and placing
it into plastic containers. Mark cuts off a small stud from a
strawberry plant, which looks like a dark green leafy shrub with
strawberries growing in the middle, and places the stud in a bag.
“No usual lesions or marks on the plants, they seem fine”. “I don’t
see anything unusual on the worms either. Again, no lesions,
contusions, cuts, bruises, anything really”. “There has to be
something. Keep looking”. Mark cuts a bushel of corn with a large
pair of garden scissors and puts it into a seal-able plastic wrap.
Mike comments to Greg and Peter, “Well, so far it seems your plants
should be fine, at least on the outside. Try not to raise hopes too
high though, we need to confirm that”.

“Did you advise LA that we believe Groundup is the
cause of the worm die-out? Until we proof otherwise, we’ll stick to
that- but it's only a hypothesis.” “I told them. I also advised
them to have a full quarantine team ready in case we need it”.
“That should be fine”. Mike walks over to the van to find Laurie in
the small mobile laboratory in the van’s cargo compartment. “So,
what’ve we got?” Laurie has placed little bits of various crops
around the lab table, and is starting to add solutions to one of
them. “Well, nothing conclusive yet. No plant diseases that I see.”
Turning over a kernel of corn and putting it in Mike’s hand, Laurie
continues, “No leaf blight, corn rust, stalk rot, or any bacterial
disease that I see. Again, on the strawberries there is no slime,
no rot, no leaf spots, no powder; I don’t see any connection to the
worms from these plant crops”. “But the plants were all treated
with the herbicide. So we’re going to assume that the herbicide
either has no effect on the plants, or the effect hasn’t taken
effect yet. Literally”. “It’s the best we can do at the moment. Are
we getting a quarantine team in?”

“Not yet. I don’t think it is warranted just yet”,
replies Mike. “Until we find the agent that is causing the worms to
die, I don’t think we should quarantine”. Thinking of Miles and his
farm, Mike continues, “Quarantine should be our last resort.
Otherwise it would be harmful to community”. Laurie nods, and
continues working. Mark enters the truck carrying bags of dead
worms in his gloved hands. Placing four bags in a freezer in the
front of the passenger compartment, he places another two bags on
the large examining table. Taking off his gloves and throwing them
out, Mark grabs another two pairs of latex gloves and gives a pair
to Mike. “Lets see what this baby has to tell us”, grunts Mark to
Mike. Mike nods before coming up besides Mark next to the table.
The two men each put on a pair of safety goggles. Mark takes out a
few worms using a pair of forceps and places them on a glass
plate.

Taking a magnifying lens Mark peers through the thick
glass at the dead annelids. “How much do you know about annelid
anatomy?”, he asks Mike. “Not much. But that’s what we have the
laptop for. Once we connect to an online database, we'll have that
info.” Mark proceeds to turn on the laptop and take out an
entomology dissection kit from one of the boxes. Opening the kid,
he takes out a piece of micro-tape and tapes a worm onto a glass
microscope slide. Once taped tightly to the slide, he carefully
holds the worm in place with a forceps while using a scalpel to cut
it open. The worm peels apart like a banana, allowing Mark to
carefully uses the forceps to peel back the outer layer of hardened
exoskeletal skin. The worm’s yellowish-gray internal organs are now
open for Mark and Mike to see. An Earthworm’s internal body
structure is dominated by digestive system, a long connected tube
composed of several organs that run throughout the length of the
body. Mark begins to explain the anatomy to Mike while he pins down
the worm’s skin segments. “Near the worm’s head here lies the
esophagus, followed by the crop which is bulkier that the rest of
the tube. Behind the crop is the gizzard, and then the intestine
leading to the anus. In front of the crop lie two large whitish
seminal vesicles, whose function is to secrete fluids such as
proteins, fructose, vitamin C, and enzymes. These fluids are then
used in the production of spermatozoa. The worm’s crop is part of
the digestive system, where food is stored prior to digestion in
the gizzard. The gizzard is an organ, similar to a human stomach,
that will digest food through the use of acids. The strong muscular
walls of the gizzard allow the worm to grind tough foods”. “You
know Mark, that’s fascinating, but how does that help us?”

Mark looks closely at the worm. “We should test the
worm’s stomach cavities and gizzard for traces of Cleanup”. Mike
turns around quizzically. “Make sure that your test runs for
Groundup SuperPower only. You know there’s a whole line of those
products, ever since the seventies. SuperPower is the latest. There
should be a trace difference in composition between SuperPower and
other lines, for example PowerMax”. “Right”. With a click Mike’s
laptop whirs to action as Mike starts to surf the web for
information on Groundup products. Mike simultaneously turns to Mark
telling him, “Call headquarters, and tell them to e-mail me any
information they can send me on MalSanto’s Groundup Products.
Specifically, Groundup SuperPower”. Mark opens up his wire-thin
Nokia iphone to make the call to the USDA Los Angeles office, while
Mike searches the web for useful information on the new herbicide.
“Lets see, what is Groundup composed of? Well, that should be
easy”. Immediately after putting the words into a search engine,
Mike sees the screen show hundreds of thousands of hits. Many sport
headlines such as “Weed Killer kills Human Cells”, “Is Groundup
safe?”, and “Is Groundup Carcinogenic?”. Mike signs.
If there is
any slight indication that whatever we find in those earthworms is
indeed carcinogenic, we’re going to have a major media problem on
our hands. Let’s hope that that’s not the case. Ahh, finally. The
ingredients list.
Some ingredients listed on the website
included Isopropylamine glyphosate salt, water, glyphosate organic
acids, isopropylamine, polyoxyethylene alkalymine, and FD& C
Blue No. 1.
But those are for older products, such as Super
Concentrate or PowerMax.
Mike keeps surfing.

Mark comes up to Mike as he’s typing. “Hey, LA says
that they are sending all the information they have to your e-mail.
Also, they are sending their own team here”. Mike stops his typing,
looking up at Mark nondescriptly. “I thought we were alone on this
one. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Lets
assume it’s a good thing and that we can use the help. So the files
are on my-email?” “Yes. They will of course be copied to John at
Stockton. But we’ll have them here within a few minutes”. “Mark,
did you tell them I need a list of SuperPower’s active
ingredients?” “Yes, that should be included in the file. Any new
herbicide or pesticide is listed in our database before it goes
into the market”. “Don’t forget, we should also look at the
inactive ingredients. They are just as notorious for causing
problems, and you know that”. Mike gives Mark a quick friendly
glare before grimacing, “Yes, don’t think that I’ve forgotten those
previous episodes with Cleanup. Remember when those French
researchers claimed that Cleanup’s inert ingredients were harmful
to human cells
⁵
? I believe they said
that even diluted concentrations of the inert ingredients had toxic
effects on embryonic and umbilical cord cells. That was a hell of a
case”.

“It was true though”, replied Mark astutely from his
laptop. The researchers, from the University of Caen, stated that
polyethoxylated tallowamine, or POEA, is more harmful to humans
than the herbicide itself. Frankly, I doubt that any active
ingredient in SuperPower will be causing the earthworms to die. It
must be one of the inert chemicals”. “We shouldn’t simply assume
that. All of the ingredients will have to be tested” “I know that.
Cleanup’s primary active ingredient has always been Glyphosate. But
even Glyphosate, with all its many critics, has been tested
repeatedly by MalSanto itself, the USDA, the EPA, just about
everyone. The EPA classifies Glyphosate as a group E chemical,
trust me – we already know it's not carcinogenic”.

“Carcinogenic for you, or the worms?”, replies Mike.
“Besides, you forgot the other aspects of that case. There have
been incidences of cancer and birth defects in Argentina allegedly
due to Glyphosate. Specifically people living near areas that were
crop-dusted. In addition, there were links reported between
glyphosate and genetic abnormalities in amphibians. Honestly, we
have no idea what the new versions of these chemicals will do to
individual species. And don’t forget, MalSanto, Dupont, all these
corporations make money by creating new ones every month”. Laurie
walks into the back of the van, giving each man a cursory glance,
“guys, what are we up to? Discussing active and inert agents?”.
Mark shifts in his seat to face her. “Look Laurie, it's like this.
We have a hunch that SuperPower is responsible for this right? The
thing is- every single active ingredient in every Groundup product
that comes out is tested repeatedly. Tested for defects, genetic
abnormalities, mutations, anything that it could produce that would
interfere with other organisms and the environment. We already know
that those chemicals are safe. We should focus on the inert
chemicals”. Mark finishes his sentence, and Mike immediately steps
in. “Well, the point is, everything including the active
ingredients should be tested. The decision is final. And in any
case, the LA office will call the shots once they get here”.

Taking a step back, Laurie reasons with Mike and
Mark. “Well, all of us know that there are many risks involved with
genetically modified organisms. MalSanto’s Groundup ready crops are
specifically designed to be resistant to glyphosate. That way the
plants don’t die when sprayed with the herbicide”. Mark grumbles,
“Right. A statement of the obvious, Laurie. What else?” “What I’m
trying to say, is this-we need to take every component into account
here. How are they resistant to glyphosate? The plant cells of the
crop in question are injected with bacteria that have a natural
immunity to glyphosate. This bacterial-corn DNA recombination is
used in any seed that needs to be glyphosate resistant. Don’t
forget, the plants will reject foreign DNA. In some cases the
techniques used to implant this new DNA damage the cell plants
during the gene-manipulation process. Also, what about the promoter
genes used to activate the newly introduced DNA strands? We should
determine if this bacterial DNA, or if any other chemicals used in
this process, are harming the worms. So, we should focus not only
on the inert chemicals or the active ingredients, but also on the
biological agents added to the crops themselves”. Mike picks up on
the cue. “We should ask Mr. Miles if he uses Cleanup-Ready crop
seeds. Also, what effect is SuperPower having on those seeds? Could
it be a catalyst for some negative reaction on the plants
themselves?” “I don’t know Mike. But ask you said, let's ask Mr.
Miles”.

Mike goes out of the van to the farmhouse patio,
about 100 feet away. Greg Miles is lounging in a hammock, smoking a
cigarette while reading his newspaper. “Got nothing better to do,
you people are taking up most of my day. What else?” “We need to
know, Mr. Miles, everything you could tell us. I hope you
understand that.” “Sure, why wouldn’t I understand that?”, Greg
Miles retorts cynically, taking his cigarette out of his mouth and
blowing a puff of smoke out. “First, do you use Cleanup-ready crop
seeds?”, asks Mike. “’Course I do! How do you think all that
Groundupwill work if I didn’t? They’ll kill all my crops and I’d
lose a hell of a lot of money. That’s not the only point though”.
Greg leans over his hammock towards Mike, motioning him closer with
two fingers. Mike comes a little closer. “These people. They
‘course, figure they need to make a buck too. So guess what? They
make them little seeds so that they can’t reproduce. And so us
farmers have to buy more and more every year, on no-till soil.
That’s right, new seeds every year. Lots of herbicide from them
every year. Course I’m not gonna complain since my farm’s been
fairly good, but seriously. Load of crap”.