Silent Spring

Dr. Bridget Stuchbury, author of the The Silence of the Songbirds, recently stopped in Fredericton to warn that the bird population is dwindling. A Canada research chair in ecology and conservation biology at Toronto's York University, Stuchbury told the Telegraph-Journal that the Canadian bird population has been declining by one to two per cent a year since the mid-1960s.

Stutchbury cited pesticide use and deforestation as a couple of the problems, and singled out the practice of forest clearing for coffee plantations as one of the primary concerns - another reason to support shade-grown coffee.

But far-off coffee plantations aren't the only problem. The same day the story on Stutchbury ran, NB Power also advertised its 2010 herbicide application program on its transmission line rights-of-ways.

The company announced its intent to spray the herbicide Vision Max on approximately 1,000 hectares [...]

Additional excerpt: 

Monsanto manufactures Vision Max and the chemical has repeatedly raised the ire of groups like the Sierra Club of Canada. The group contends that the active ingredient in Vision Max, glyphosate, is linked to respiratory problems, birth defects, miscarriages, and cancer - not to mention that fact it is toxic to fish and fails to break down quickly in soil.