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Hardcover Fateful Harvest: The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret Book

ISBN: 0060193697

ISBN13: 9780060193690

Fateful Harvest: The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret

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Format: Hardcover

Condition: Good

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Book Overview

Quincy, Washington, had been a sleepy northwestern farming town until its rest is disturbed by a shocking secret beneath its once-fertile fields: chemical manufacturers are disposing of leftover toxic waste by selling it to unsuspecting farmers as fertilizer. The tainted fertilizer -- containing arsenic and cadmium, lead and dioxins-is believed to be destroying crops, sickening animals, and endangering the nation's food supply. And owing to a gaping regulatory loophole, it is completely legal. Up against the secrecy and greed of powerful corporations, a local lifelong tomboy and mother of four will make an impassioned stand. Patty Martin begins a fateful journey that will lead to her election as mayor, but also invite the resentment of most of her neighbors for daring to confront the industry that has been Quincy's lifeblood. Martin is joined by a small number of brave farmers who bring ingenuity, outrage, and an investigative reporter to the fight against seemingly insurmountable odds to expose the truth. They learn that toxic waste is turned into fertilizer around the world, spread on food-growing land, absorbed by plants, and, ultimately, consumed by all of us. Duff Wilson, whose Seattle Times series on this story was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, here provides the definitive account of a new and alarming environmental scandal. Fateful Harvest is a gripping study of corruption and courage, of recklessness and reckoning. It is a story that speaks to the greatest fears -- and ultimate hope -- in us all.

Customer Reviews

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Rated 5 stars
POWERFUL!

It is simple. Read the book. Decide if you want to eat your food with some toxic fertilizer sprinkled on by corporate-terrorists. Do your research and then decide what you are going to do about this horrendous insult to all life and the land around the world. This issue leaves me mourning for our world. Thankfully there are still dedicated people like Duff Wilson that uncover the scoundrels that have no conscience except for...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
How hazardous waste is turned into fertilizer

Duff Wilson is an investigative reporter for the Seattle Times who got a call one day from Patty Martin, mayor of Quincy, Washington, who told him an almost unbelievable tale of toxic waste being sold as fertilizer. The zinger was, as Wilson discovered, it was entirely legal!Imagine this: big industrial companies, growing increasingly displeased with having to pay for the cost of disposing of their hazardous waste materials,...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
THE TRUTH HURTS; "FATEFUL HARVEST" UNVEILS THE TRUTH!

In this fast moving information age, we have become used to hearing of environmental controversies only when it is convenient for the media. With FATEFUL HARVEST, a proven investigative reporter conveys the painful truth that has been hidden by chemical companies for decades. DUFF WILSON is hardly a fly-by-night writer and his credibility outweighs the reviews elsewhere here that dismisses his words as "sophomoric" and "one-sided."...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
Convincing, Controversial, & Very Readable

This is a deeply disturbing true story of a somewhat naive rural housewife who meets the rough & tumble of environmental politics head-on. It changes her life in unforseen ways, as well as those around her -- including the author, a seasoned investigative reporter who lets us inside his head. Readers should not demand absolute proof of health effects from toxic waste in fertilizers. The evidence marshalled by this book...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
A great read -- mindblowing true story

Don Delillo could not have imagined this. I was more blown away by 'Fateful Harvest' than by 'A Civil Action' or 'Erin Brockovich'. Those earlier works were isolated cases of industry abuse, while this book exposes a real-life toxic waste scandal focused ultimately on the food eaten by billions. What's most scary is that the scandal is still going on! -- toxic waste is turned into fertilizer, and spread on the food supply;...

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