Take a COOL Guess – the Fun Quiz on Clean Energy.  Today’s Topic: McDonald’s French Fries

Question:  We’re all familiar with the child obesity issue associated with fast food in the U.S.  But what about the effects of the chemical pesticides that are in such heavy use to keep McDonald’s supplied with the 3.5 billion pounds of the Russet Burbank it needs annually, their potato of choice for their world-famous French fries?  How often do farmers spray?  How much of that spray drifts to other areas?

Answers: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.

Relevance: According to this article:

Rural communities in northern Minnesota that live near potato farms that supply the Golden Arches have had enough. They have become victims of “pesticide drift,” in which the wind carries sprays and dusts away from the farms where they are used to other regions, negatively impacting public health, the environment and other crops. In Minnesota, where 98 percent of the state’s 50,000 acres of potatoes are sprayed with chemicals to prevent the growth of fungus.

According to air quality tests across several Minnesota counties conducted between 2006-2009, a third of air samples test positive for one or more pesticides, including probable carcinogens like chlorothalonil and pendimethalin, chlorpyrifos (which has shown to disrupt nervous system development in children), PCNB (a probable carcinogen and suspected endocrine disruptor) and 2,4‐D (a possible carcinogen that puts male farm workers who use the product at risk for abnormally shaped sperm).