September 21, 2021 Liberation Station Radio Show with Chris Steiner (TheLiberationStation.com)

September 21, 2021 Liberation Station Radio Show with Chris Steiner (TheLiberationStation.com) and Erik E. Crown, GuestShow more

Guest: Erik E. Crown ( ErikECrown.com, PhosfateMovie.com, facebook.com/erik.crown ), Producer of the new and pioneering documentary, "Phosfate," Host of The Conservation Conversation Podcast ( facebook.com/ConservationConversationPodcast, youtube.com/channel/UC4kA1Tpz1DGbVP6JOijgmKA/videos ). He has a long career in video production. We'll be talking about how to stop the ongoing environmental, radiological disasters from phosphate mining, like its waste leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, Tampa Bay, and Floridan aquifer, especially by sustaining the July 25, 2018 victory of preventing Mosaic Phosphate Mining Company from strip mining 14,000 acres in DeSoto County, again at the upcoming November 2, 2021 DeSoto Commission Meeting. We'll also discuss phosphate mining's connections to cancer, red tide, water fluoridation, and the eventual exhaustion of phosphate.
I'll briefly cover how phosphate fertilizer, even if it were safe, is inadequate to help plants be healthy, inducing in grower's a sense of dependence on pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Instead, the safe, inexpensive technology of water ionization can deliver mineral ions, along with other benefits, to help plants thrive wonderfully, making phosphate fertilizer obsolete and pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides unnecessary.

Synopsis of "Phosfate," the movie ( phosfatemovie.com/synopsis ):
Cancer survivor and filmmaker Erik E. Crown [facebook.com/erik.crown] joins local water activists to investigate accelerated cancer rates and other illnesses in central Florida communities, tracing the source to phosphate mining and the pollution of the state’s waterways by a multinational corporation.
The residents of Bone Valley Florida have cancer rates 6 times higher than the national average. This region of central Florida has the largest deposits of the naturally occurring chemical phosphorous, which is mined to make fertilizer. As the chemical is processed, using over 70 million gallons of groundwater, each ton leaves behind 5 times the amount of radioactive rock.
One of the largest landholders in Florida, The Mosaic Company, owns over 300,000 acres allocated to mining. As the largest industry in the state, mining over 16 million tons of phosphate rock per year, it is self-regulated and required by the county and state government to only report on balanced pH levels. The company dilutes its outfall by pumping it through the state’s waterways. Even though the company was fined by the EPA in 2015 for 2 billion dollars in damages for the mishandling of hazardous waste, it continues its practices and is seeking to expand operations to DeSoto County.
Crown works with the residents of Arcadia, Florida, a sleepy agricultural city that is ground zero in the battle against Mosaic.
After seeing their families and friends impacted by accelerated rates of cancer and other illnesses, the residents of these communities are fighting back by taking water samples, delving into the company’s “reclamation” programs, organizing protests, and participating in town halls.
This investigation uncovers why corporate pollution continues today and why people in communities worldwide face the same issues as those in Florida. It begs the question – what’s in your water?
*The film features Florida water activists: #Nosaic Facebook page co-founders Molly Bowen and Jeremy Block [facebook.com/xtremefurystunterz], organizer Louella Phillips [facebook.com/ROCKYSGRL], organic farmer Garrett Ramy [facebook.com/garrett.ramy.33], former miner-turned-whistleblower Gary O. Pittman [facebook.com/gop32053], and Fight4Zero.org founder Stel Bailey [facebook.com/stelbailey].
Learn more about the featured activists: https://phosfatemovie.com/featured

KEY QUOTES FROM THE FILM ( phosfatemovie.com/key-quotes ):
► “Florida is so radioactive that the Fountain of Youth is closed due to radioactivity. People that work in the mine and live near the mines were getting accelerated cancer rates. And in 2011, cancer became the leading cause of death in Florida.” - Erik E. Crown
► “The main problem is the chronic poisoning, I call it. They don’t like to hear that word, poisoning, but that’s what it is. I mean, if you inject somebody with a poison, and it kills them right away, it’s kind of showing some mercy, you know what I mean? But just say you give him just a little, little bit every day for 20 years, I call that cruel.” - Gary O. Pittman [facebook.com/gop32053]
► “I had two boyfriends. Two. One died before he turned 44 of lung cancer and brain cancer and throat cancer. He suffocated to death. And then I had somebody else that I was close to. And he would have been 52 when he died. He’d died of throat cancer. So, you don’t have to necessarily work at the mines. You have to live around them or drink the water or deal with the soil.” - Louella Phillips [facebook.com/ROCKYSGRL]
► "Me and the guys used to laugh about the stickers that would be in there. They would say, “May cause reproductive harm.” And there was like a bunch of stickers in there. We would have them on our hardhats as a joke. But I mean, that doesn’t have anything. It might have something to do with me not being able to have kids. I don’t know." - “Mike”
► “In 2018, our ground zero for red tide devastation, millions of tons of dead fish, sea life, dolphins, manatees washing up on our beaches all summer long, devastating our environment and our economy. As those phosphorus products make their way into the waterway and feed the cyanobacteria, feed the red tide, it leads to an ecological disaster of millions of tons of fish kills this year, over 200 manatees, over 125 dolphins, over 400 sea turtles, and tons of miscellaneous fish that were killed this year, behind that was economic meltdown.” - Karl Deigert [facebook.com/karl.deigert.50]
► “Mosaic is self-regulated, so they only have to turn in reports for a balanced pH level, which allows them to dump harmful chemicals and toxins into the water without many people noticing. Mosaic believes that the solution to pollution is dilution. So, they run their water through these outfalls, dump it back into the local creeks and rivers, which eventually works its way out to the ocean” - Erik E. Crown [facebook.com/erik.crown]

Show page with guest information, show material, and blog: TheLiberationStation.com/September-21-2021-Edition

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