The Nation - News from March 20, 1986

Dairymen facing the prospect of having to dump pesticide-tainted milk for up to two years told federal officials they would rather sell their herds to the government and start over. Michael Masterson, who headed a federal task force on fact-finding visits to farms in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, said purchase of herds contaminated by heptachlor contained in feed--the chemical can cause cancer in laboratory rats--is one of the options officials in Washington will consider this week. About 100 farmers in the three states have been ordered to stop selling milk after their herds ate heptachlor-tainted feed.