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Impacts of pesticides on agriculture
Pesticides and their harmful effects
Effects of pesticides in an agricultural land
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The Deadly Effects of Pesticides Pesticides are chemical compounds used to kill unwanted "pests" such as small insects. These chemicals can harm creatures in many ways including their ability to never disappear, their disruption of certain genetics and their effects on the ecosystem. Pesticides may seem like they are supporting the common good by keeping unwanted pests controlled in agriculture, but they should be tested under harsher guidelines because they are more dangerous and deadly than many realize. To begin with, pesticides prove harmful to people through their ability to grow within the produce being protected by it from insects. Pesticides are found not only …show more content…
Many people believe that they can remove excess pesticides by merely washing their produce before consuming it, yet that is simply not the case. One may wash their produce to their hearts content, but when the poisons of pesticides are already harbored within, there is no way to remove them. Going back to the example of an apple, as it continues to grow the pesticides will stay within and also, slightly alleviate the need for more. When it comes time to harvest the apples, orchards will send them off to be cleaned and then to the stores or to a processor to become apple juice. With the pesticides still inside of the apples, even apple juice will contain the chemicals and can be harmful to the consumer. The best way to ensure that the food purchased is something healthy instead of harmful, is to check to make sure that ‘Organic’ is somewhere on the label. It may cost more but the price should always outweigh the health risks. Certain studies on pesticides are based around calculations of what they may do to the human body in the future if our use of them continues, but many studies …show more content…
The air surrounding both becomes contaminated yet the organic farms can still be called organic because they are not the ones placing the poison into their fields. This means that many organic farms aren’t really organic, but they are able to label their products that way. Organic farmers are trying to fight for their right and have been able to in certain states, but many allow farmers who use pesticides, to purchase land that touches the organic land. While spraying produce with these chemicals many can travel to the other field and contaminate it, and other farmers use this to their advantage as a business tactic, labeling things organic when they are truly not. The EPA needs to change its regulations towards pesticides because currently all they are doing is showing that if you tweak a chemical compound enough to not include certain banned ingredients, then it is okay to produce and suffocate agriculture with. Then in a few years they’ll ban other things and the cycle will begin again, it’s a non-stop continuation of placing deadly things in the air we breathe just to determine that they are unfit for us. The people who have been effected by cancer and other horrific diseases need the justice of better guidelines at the least, so that lesser and lesser people will have to suffer through what they
Steven Shapin is an expert when it comes to telling people the reality of the situation. In his, article “What Are You Buying When You Buy Organic?” Shapin exposes and explains the truth behind the word organic. He explains that our view on organic is not a reality. The small farms that we picture in our heads are really just big business in disguise and these big businesses are trying to do good by supposedly not using harmful pesticides. Which are supposed to not damage the environment but in reality they are probably not making any sort of difference. Some people care about the environment, while others are buying taste when it comes to organic food but using different pesticides are going to help the taste, only freshness tastes the best.
There are many issues regarding the raising and producing of various livestock animals, and the use of pesticides on various types of crops. The movie Food.Inc does a good job explaining these issues, but in a very biased way. It makes agriculturists look like terrible people, when this is not the case.
What is a pesticide?A pesticide is a chemical substance used to kill pests, especially insects. A pesticide is also refered to as a biocide. Most pesticides are applied in spray form but occasionaly you will see pesticides that are in powder or pellet form. Pesticides are used on a variety of things, anything from crops like corn, barley, and wheat, to plants like petunias, marigolds, and rhodadendrons, which are usually found in small gardens greenhouses, and even in your backyard.
Colony Collapse Disorder and Pesticides From around the year 2006, many bee farmers in the U.S.A and some parts of Europe started reporting sharp declines in their bee stocks. The reason for these declining numbers was not known and therefore scientists named it colony collapse disorder (CCD). Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a not very old phenomenon and it became popular when large numbers of bee colonies started disappearing. The disappearance was mysterious since no dead bees were found in or around the beehives after a colony’s number was reported to have gone down or vanished.
A gene used for pest control, Bt, has infected these foods. You would never know this gene existed because it’s not included in the label. Organic foods are specifically labeled as organic whenever you may find them at a grocery store or elsewhere. These foods are known as being essentially grown in healthy soil, in other words, a soil that isn’t infected with poisonous, synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Although organic foods are more expensive, it is only the result from the frequent crop rotations completed by the farmers during long, hot hours under the sun. Conventional farming methods destroy topsoil whereas organic farming can improve the overall health of the topsoil. Farmers who partake in organic farming view it as feeding the soil and not the plants. Due to this thinking method, a healthy soil provides healthy plants, healthy people and a healthy environment. Organic farming has the ability to feed an entire population and put an end to starvation. The dangerous pesticides that are added with conventional farming are outdated and risky to mankind. Relying on synthetic fertilizers and chemicals are paralyzing our
The pesticides must be natural, and be part of the approved list established by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (6). The crop must also be void of any prohibited substances for at least three years. The time limit is set to allow room for chemicals, which may have an effect on the crop, that may reside over time to become less abundant. This is only a pre-requisite to even have the crop to be considered organic, meaning that the crop may still fail the certification of being organic. The crop that is used is also prohibited from going through genetic engineering.
To help keep crops from being destroyed, conventional farmers use many methods such as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Nearly 1 billion pounds of these chemicals are used every year (“pesticides”). Because of this excessive use, some scientists express concern that using artificial chemicals in the farming process could produce unhealthy crops. People who ate it over a long period of time could suffer from degraded health and stunted growth (“Organic Foods”). For example, in 1989, the EPA banned the use of Alar which was a chemical used to ripen apples (“Farming, Organics”). This chemical proved to be carcinogenic after causing tumors in mice after several laboratory tests (“Organic Food”). As a result of these findings there was a dramatic increase of the sales for organic food (“Organic Food”). Another study found that Atrazine (one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States) has the potential of being carcinogenic and reducing sperm counts in males (“Organic Food”). This was further proven when evidence was found that chemicals u...
...ortation of plants, fruits, vegetables, and animals. Indiscriminate pesticide use kills the good with the bad. Long term and wide spread pesticide use poisons underground water sources, which, in turn, poison plants, animals, and humans. And, finally, by our uninformed actions, new super races of pests continue to evolve and create even greater dangers than the original.
For years organic farmers and conventional farmers have feuded over which is superior. Organic farmers argue that their product is more eco-friendly because they do not use the synthetic chemicals and fertilizers conventional farmer’s use. Conventional farmers argue that their product is healthier and yields more. People tend to have stereotypes regarding the two types of farmers. Organic farmers are usually thought of as liberal, hippy, tree-huggers while conventional farmers are usually thought of as right-wing, industrialists. Obviously, some do adhere to this stereotype, but a majority of these farmers are normal, hardworking people. Although these farmers, both believe in their methods, one is no better than the other. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, but there is no true superior method of crop farming.
As time has progressed, there has always been an overarching need for high amounts of crop production throughout the world. With the rapid rate of population growth, the need for crops and other sources of nutrients is only increasing. In order to meet these high demands and increase yields, farmers and other agriculturalists have started implementing the use of pesticides. These chemical mixtures are being used in order to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pests from destroying growing crops. However, using pesticides on crops can create massive amounts of pollution, negatively affect an individual’s health, and can spark biodiversity loss within an ecosystem. According to Michael C.R. Alavanja, “Over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used within the United States (US) each year and approximately 5.6 billion pounds are used worldwide”. With all this in mind, it is clear that pesticides should not be made available to farmers and agriculturalists, and should
A study of 362 datasets found that organic agriculture produces 80% of conventional yield with 21% standard deviation (Tomek et al. 2012). Second, organic farming requires less energy input which equates to less money spend from the farmers in addition to lowering carbon emissions. A study by the Department of Environment shows that organic agriculture uses 25 percent less than energy than their chemical counterparts, and certain crops like organic leeks and broccoli use 58 and 49 percent less, respectively (Bialis et al. 2013). Third, organic farming does not use pesticides. According to the World Health Center, 20,000 people die annually from the exposure of pesticides (Costa et al. 2014). Fourth, the methods that organic farmers use are better for the environment in the long run. And lastly, organic farming creates more jobs. A study done in United Kingdom shows 93,000 jobs could be created if Britain were to make a full scale shift to organic farming (Herro 2006). Although conventional agriculture is the primary producer for food currently, a large scale shift to organic agriculture is better suited to feed the world because organic agriculture can produce at adequate yield, requires less energy input, do not use
Instead of using pesticides in farming a better alternative would be biological control. This is when a natural predator is released into the crop growing area as a result the number of pests can be reduced.
First of all, the main reason that people choose organic food is that people think organic foods have less chemical residue, such as pesticide, and fertilizer. In the article “Organic foods contain higher levels of certain nutrients, lower levels of pesticides, and may provide health benefits for the consumer”, Crinnion indicated that organic foods just had 33 percent of the amount of pesticide and fertilizer residues that found in conventional foods, and conventional foods contain two or more types of chemical residues than organic foods (Crinnion, 2010). In addition, Crinnion used a study of Seattle preschoolers as an example to demonstrate organic foods have less pesticide residues. The study of Seattle concluded that children who ate more conventional foods had six times higher level of pesticide resi...
People who do pest control are expert and experienced exterminators who are prepared and well equipped to handle severe cases like these. They know how to handle the harmful chemicals. 2. It helps us to get rid of harmful mosquitoes, flies and other disease causing insects and also
The pesticide is a controversial topic since farmers are used it to gain their yield. Especially, pesticide is discovered during World War II as a chemical weapon that mixture of multiple chemicals together to kill human. Therefore, Chantries redesign pesticide to kill an organism where and when we don’t want it. Because people want to go to the grocery store to buy the perfect product, pesticide makes it happens and with a little cost for farmers. Nonetheless, pesticide also is the expenditure of life expectancy, which directly threatens people and poses risk of mortality rate. Abusing the pesticide has multiple affects on our society, (Add). (Add thesis)