There is growing concern about the harmful impact of pesticides on human health, agriculture and biodiversity, prompting calls from researchers to reduce their prevalence.
Yeah, I don't care about that argument. They'll say they used science to determine if a company can increase their profits to the detriment of our health and tell us it's good for us.
This is Canada, file a freedom of information request, read the peer reviewed articles. Using a science-based process to update the maximum residue limit is exactly what they should be doing. Anti-science conspiracy theories wrapped in cynicism is not helpful.
No I agree it's not helpful. But in this day and age with the type of capitalism what we're living in, forgive me for being cynical.
In Michigan, they tried to convince the people that the water had an acceptable level of lead and that they had nothing to worry about. Even Obama came to support the local government on this. And it turned out it wasn't true. They came up with "scientific" evidence to try to prove it. All of this to support a local business that fucked up the local water supply when changing the aqueducts or some shit.
And I'm sorry but I don't have time to do requests through the freedom of information act and potentially have to fight some bureaucrat because I'm not a journalist.
We DO need more and better journalists that investigate and find the truth and inform people. Right now it feels like media companies all have some kind of agenda and everything is just clickbait to generate revenue.
“Safe Food Matters president Mary Lou McDonald agreed. Accessing the health and safety data the PMRA uses to determine MRLs is challenging due to stringent limits on what data can be seen — and shared — by the public to protect pesticide companies' intellectual property. She noted issues with the accuracy and relevance of the data used by the government in its assessment process.
Moreover, she noted the PMRA and pesticide manufacturers have a close working relationship — an issue also flagged by Lanphear.”
Firstly, the burden of proof should be on the person making the claim and Mary Lou McDonald offers no evidence for her claim.
Secondly, I'm not making an ad hominem fallacy. I'm not attacking Mary Lou McDonald's character. I'm pointing out that she is not an expert in this field.
That's literally an ad hominem fallacy lmao. What is expertise if not part of ones character?
You are not an expert either, but that doesn't mean anything you say about it is untrue and should be discarded. If you make a claim the validity of that claim is what should be debated, not whether your credentials are relevant.
I made two points above. Mary Lou McDonald offered no evidence AND she's not a scientist. Mary Lou McDonald didn't make an argument and provide evidence.
That’s literally an ad hominem fallacy lmao.
This is incorrect. Pointing out that someone is not an expert in a technical field they are discussing is not an ad hominem fallacy. That's a ridiculous idea.
Typically this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.