Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book and about time
Review: "Fateful Harvest" was easy to read but the facts presented left me outraged and saddened. Read the book and learn of the magic trick of turning toxic waste with costly disposal fees into a product to sell, fertilizer. Fertilizer which is laced with heavy metals that will end up in our food in increasing amounts as the accumulation in the soil increases. Learn how the average citizen, small town mayor and farmer have zero ability to impact business practices which are supported by the government despite years of heroic effort and the expose of this book. Despite minimal cosmetic changes, the practice goes on, and is apparently unstoppable, leaving nowhere to turn.
Rating: 
Summary: Nowhere to turn.
Review: "Fateful Harvest" was easy to read but the facts presented left me outraged and saddened. Read the book and learn of the magic trick of turning toxic waste with costly disposal fees into a product to sell, fertilizer. Fertilizer which is laced with heavy metals that will end up in our food in increasing amounts as the accumulation in the soil increases. Learn how the average citizen, small town mayor and farmer have zero ability to impact business practices which are supported by the government despite years of heroic effort and the expose of this book. Despite minimal cosmetic changes, the practice goes on, and is apparently unstoppable, leaving nowhere to turn.
Rating: 
Summary: Storytelling, not reporting.
Review: A book is a terrible thing to waste. This is an example of American "journalism" at its worst -- a crusading reporter picks a side, does all he can to discredit anybody who offers contrary evidence, and uses his position and reporting to gather intelligence for those he has joined.
The thesis is "hazardous" waste is used to make fertilizer that corrupts our food supply. Yet no reporting is done on the toxicology of the "hazards" involved. A description of potential health effects of the metals involved and in what doses those hazards might occur would have added some substance.
Words and concepts not understood by the author were merely denigrated. For instance, while the concept of "agronomic" rates of nutrients is important to farmers trying to raise a crop, the author simply derides the use of this word, and never attempts to define or explain it.
Worst of all, this book is poorly and sophomorically written. Despite my intense interest in the subject matter, it was a real struggle to read through this book. A real opportunity to educate the public was given up for the chance to try to scare the public.
The only honest admission came in the epilogue, where the author stated his commitment to the precautionary principle while deriding the concept of risk assessment. Risk assessment is a fundamental regulatory tool used in our country to make judgements about the safety of products and practices -- but explaining that seemed too hard for this author, who resorted merely to denigrating ideas and people he didn't agree with.
If you don't like science and don't mind facts being jettisoned in an attempt to make a good story, you might try this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Failed to make the case
Review: A real disappointing read. The dust jacket makes you believe the book'll prove cancer, death, and havoc befell this tiny town.It didn't. Scientists, government, and townfolk all say it was much hysteria about nothing. I agree. Strip away the enflamed rhetoric and you have..nothing...
Rating:
Summary: Would you like fries with that?
Review: A thoughtfully written book which documents the plight of small-town citizens turned activists who struggle to expose the horrifying industry practice of dumping toxic waste in our nation's fertilizers. You will admire the courage of Mayor Patty Martin and farmer Dennis DeYoung in their insurmountable battle to protect a farming community and our food supply. Investigative reporter Duff Wilson reveals not only is this toxic waste polluting some of the nation's richest farmland, it may be contaminating our food. Consider this: Wilson notes Washington's J.R. Simplot Company is one of the nation's biggest exporter of french fries. "The northwestern United States supplied 80 percent of the world's fries." Wilson's book captures the spirit of this human struggle against the forces of corporate greed and inept government regulators. This reporter expertly documents this unthinkable practice and lays it out there very simply, in provocative, tightly written prose. I read it in six hours. I can only hope this book inspires legislators to re-examine this issue in the name of public safety. It brings new meaning to the "happy meal."
Rating:
Summary: Great read -- A mindblowing story
Review: 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 also had sympathetic protagonists, but were isolated cases of industry abuse, while this book exposes a real-life toxic waste scandal focused ultimately on the food eaten by us all. What's most scary to me is that the scandal is still going on! -- toxic waste is called "fertilizer," then dumped on farm land; but the politicians shrug while lives are destroyed. Wilson, an experienced investigative reporter, does a great job of distilling the science (and the politics) behind the news story. He effectively weaves the crucial discoveries of an unlikely rural heroine into the larger perspective. Believe it or not, there's even humor in the absurdity. It's definitely a compelling and accessible read. I did it in a day and a half. I expect a lot of people will be talking about this one.
Rating:
Summary: A great read -- mindblowing true story
Review: 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; but the politicians shrug while lives are destroyed. Wilson, an experienced investigative reporter, does a great job of distilling the science (and the politics) behind the news story. He effectively weaves the life of an unlikely small-town heroine into the larger perspective. It's definitely a compelling and accessible read. I did it in a day and a half.
Rating:
Summary: Entertainment for the uninformed public - no facts needed
Review: Duff Wilson can create a drama, and can paint the "good vs evil" scenario very well, and develop and animate characters. As a fiction writer for entertainment purposes, two thumbs up. The unfortunate part about this book is that it is represented as non-fiction, but unlike good documentaries, it very obviously includes only one side of the debate. If anyone takes this book seriously, and is genuinely scared about the health risk of North American food, please look into the true facts behind this or any other similar fear mongering story. The actual facts were evaluated in a court of law, and the accusations were proven false. Despite this, the tabloid network has jumped at this story because it is controversial, and they need a break from reporting on more UFO's and Elvis sightings.
Rating:
Summary: How hazardous waste is turned into fertilizer
Review: 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, typically with unsafe amounts of heavy metals, find through a loophole in the law that they can declare the waste a "product" and sell it as fertilizer! Instead of paying perhaps a hundred dollars a barrel to get rid of the stuff, they can sell it to firms that add a little lime or some other soil conditioner and abracadabra! peddle it as fertilizer. Sound like a Greenpeace scare story? A nightmare dreamed up by disgruntled employees? "Bad" farmers looking to blame somebody for their failed Frankenfeed crops? The fertilizer industry would like us to think so, but this story about Patty Martin and her brave and lonely crusade against the dumping of hazard waste on farmlands tells us otherwise. The terrible thing is that, although Wilson's original story, "Fear in the Fields--How Hazardous Wastes Become Fertilizer," first appeared in July of 1997, as the book closes in 2001, the loophole in the law has not been plugged, congress has not acted, and the polluters are still turning hazardous waste infused with cadmium, lead, arsenic, etc., into stuff smeared on farmlands. It gets into the crops farmers grow and ends up in the food on our dining room tables. It blows off the fields when it's dry and into the lungs of people. The workers in these fertilizer plants have elevated levels of cancer and lung scaring disease, and the sad thing is some of them are so wedded to the company that they are blind to what is destroying their bodies. Wilson names names and gives examples. He cites the chemical analyses and he quotes the industry apologists and the look-the-other-way bureaucrats in the oversight agencies. But clearly the real culprits are those people at the top of our state and federal governments who are doing nothing stop this dangerous pollution. This is the kind of story that'll make you hopping mad and wonder about the morality (and sanity) of people who would, to save a few bucks on the bottom line, poison us, themselves and our children.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling story that should wake us up
Review: Duff Wilson's compelling tale is a wake up call to us all. As a gardener who originally grew up near farms in Iowa, I am appalled that our government allows toxic waste to be used in fertilizer, and that anyone would question that it is a bad idea! Do we really need dead bodies and proven cancer cases to see the sense in keeping toxic waste out of our food supply? Kudos to Patty Martin for standing up for her beliefs and to Duff Wilson for sharing this tale with the rest of the country. It could affect everyone.
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