Mystery Crop Damage

Sounds VERY alarming, but the article is now 6 days old. Is there any update?

This appears to be getting as much coverage as the Nashville flood—zero.

Speculation of gaseous absorbtion of Corexit 9500 to clouds or local chemical plant leak.

Cr4 members are close to the area

that would be my first guess too... some coincidences aren't.

That's the problem with stories like these. Lots of ancedotal tales presented as evidence of something mysterious, with people trying to connect dots that may not be there. Little actual facts.

You want idle speculation? OK. My ouiji board tells me that more likely than not it's just an outbreak of some normally-rare fungus or other perfectly natural blight. Probably brought on by atypical weather conditions in the region, etc. Throw in some otherwise unremarkable accounts of dead birds for garnish. There's today's recepie for panic. Serves as many as care to sit at the table.

Or heck, maybe the SW corner of Tennessee is where the UFOs from Milplex-7 empty out their sewage holding tanks. Just as plausible.

I have Googled several variations of "Memphis Mystery Crop Damage".

The common story I keep seeing (as of 5:00AM – 6/11/10-Central Time) there has been a discharge of Sulfur Trioxide from the Lucite Plant at Highway 51 and Fite Road just after 9AM Tuesday.

Highway 51 was shut down for a while and folks in the immediate area were evacuated from their homes.

What are we doing to our Mother Earth I ask?

EDIT: Why is bwire off topic? bwire stated "local chemical plant leak". Looks like bwire was right on this one.

GA from me bwire!

same here

Even if the leak was unknown, a chemical cause is far more likely than a disease organism if it is affecting all kinds of plants. It would be very unlikely for one pathogen to be successful on everything growing in the area.

Still, another good reason to invest in portable RAMAN, there's no reason for such causes to be mysteries in this day and age.

Having watched the video, it would certainly appear to be some sort of chemical spill, or release into the atmosphere. Toni Holt, the organic farmer, is worried about her horses and chickens.

At this point, I would be worried about EVERYTHING in that area. It is obviously something in the air -- and these folks are all breathing it, or have breathed it. I guess the damage to plants is worse as it can settle on the plants and continue to damage over time -- and poison other creatures that eat contaminated plants.

What are the long term effects to humans going to be?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

Not as bad as this, but these kind of events have effects and repercussions.