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Impact of pesticides on agricultural production
Negative effects of pesticides in the environment
Negative effects of pesticides in the environment
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Did you know that pesticides have been used since the 1600s? Yes in the 1600s the romans burned sulfur to kill insects and they used salts to control weeds. The romans also used honey and arsenic to control ants. The ancient romans crushed the petals of the pyrethrum and they used ants to to eat undesirable insects. By World War II, only thirty pesticides existed(During the late 19th century, farmers were using copper acetoarsenite, calcium arsenate, nicotine sulfate, and sulfur to control insect pests in crops. Pesticides are products that are intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or to mitigate any pest. Pesticide use emerged after World War II, when DDT, BHC, Aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, and 2, 4-D was introduced. After these were introduced, people began abusing these pesticides and the pests became genetically resistant to pesticides. When this happened, non-target plants and animals were harmed and pesticide residues appeared in unexpected places. Researchers during the 1960s, began developing a different approach towards pest control. This was called integrated pest management (IPM). There are ups and downs to pesticides. When we didn’t have pesticides, there was bug spots on the produce,and blemishes. Most people won’t buy the produce if it has these kind of disorders. After pesticides were invented, we didn’t have these sort of problems, therefore sales went up.
There is many different types of pesticides today. They major classes range anywhere from Acaricide, which targets; mites, ticks, and spiders to Synergist Which improves the performance of another pesticide. Here are the major classes of pesticides:
Pesticides are grouped into what they call “families”. This is because they share similar ...
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... book Silent Spring By Rachel Carson, she talks about after the glory days of the pesticides this problem was developing. this was getting worse. In the U.S., because of pest that have evolved, farmers were losing about seven percent of their crops. Since the 1980s, some 13 percent of crops are being lost, and more pesticides are being used (PBS). Since the pests are evolving, farmers are starting to use higher doses of the pesticide if the traditional dosage does not work. Every time a human uses a pesticide, the bugs evolve a little. the bugs can not help this because it is the process of evolution, it is the cycle of life. Because pest evolution has become such a widespread problem farmers and gardeners are starting to use natural pesticides on their crops and gardens. They might even lure the pest with a meal that is more tasty than the vulnerable crop.
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.
Spinosad insecticide is an organic compound, produced by some bacteria microbes present in the soil that were first discovered surviving in rotting sugarcane rums (Thomas, 2001). It is made of two complex compounds spinosyn A and D. The compounds are very toxic to a variety of insects and less toxic to humans and some important insects beneficial in the farm such as bees. This insecticide was first discovered by Lacey and Goodfellow, in 1975.
Actually it is said that insects are becoming immune to these poisons. When a insecticide is first used, a small group of the insects may survive the exposure to the insecticides due to their distinct genetics. These individuals pass along the genes for resistance to the next generation. The over and over uses of the insecticide will actually increase the proportion of less-effected insects in the population. Worldwide, more than hundreds species of insects have developed some degree of immunity. There are many important issues in the world regarding insecticides deterioration of the environment and it's affects on the average person. Though, the one that is worst then you know it is that individuals have it in the food that they consume. Yet it is still found daily in foods all around the world. Insecticides are used by produce growers to control insects and some pests that can destroy crops. These toxins are back firing on its users because they are being eaten by humans in the forms of fruits and vegetables that have remaining of the insecticide on them. How safe are these toxins to humans and what is being done help the environment and the health of humans and non-targeted animals? How much does the average person consume harmful amounts of toxins during every meal? If the levels are unsafe, why is this problem continuing to be ignored by the people who are supposed to
Are pesticides beneficial? Do farmers waste their time spraying pesticides in the spring? Pesticides have saved people’s lives from several different diseases. These diseases include malaria which a person could get from being bit by a mosquito. There’s also the black plague, which was a devastating event that happened in Europe. With pesticides the outcome of the plague could have been different (Pros and Cons of Pesticides).
"Pesticides." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 18 July 2005. Web. 20 May 2011. .
...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.
With the world having so many people on it we use a lot of pesticides and fertilizers. If it was not for the help of these we would not have gotten to the place we are now. Pesticides and fertilizers do a lot more than just help grow and safe from pests. “Nearly 50% of the world labor is employed in agriculture and they significant risk”
Darwin would be delighted to find the insect population proves his theory of survival of the fittest. Chemical spraying kills off the weaker insects and allows the stronger ones to survive who are more and more resistant to sprays. It was DDT, Carson says, that ushered in “The Age of Resistance” (p. 233) as the genetics of insects even far from spraying sites registered the information that insecticides were not lethal to them. Resistance is developing so fast it has become a health crisis, in terms of mosquitoes, ticks, lice, cockroaches, and other vectors of disease. One method of dealing with the problem is to keep switching insecticides, but that has a limited success. Chemical companies keep inventing
What exactly is a pesticide? “A pesticide is a chemical used to prevent, destroy, or repel pests” (EPA). There are many different pests. Some examples are the termites that cause damage to our homes, dandelions in our yards, and fleas on our pets. Almost all pesticides contain chemicals that can be harmful to people, animals, or the environment. Many common products that we use in and around our homes every day are considered pesticides. Things such as mosquito sprays, rat poisons, cockroach sprays and baits, flea and tick sprays, and cleaners used to disinfect the kitchen floor. A lot of the time, pesticides are used on farmers’ crops to make sure insects do not eat away their plants. All these items, and even more are considered to be pesticides. They can poison fish and wildlife, contaminate food sources, and destroy the habitat that animals use for protective cover (EPA).
There are billions of pounds of pesticides that are produced annually, despite the research showing how dangerous this overuse is. In fact, “recent research has documented the fact that certain pesticides use may actually increase pest problems” (Pojman, 2017, p. 800). This further demonstrates how pesticides are generally harmful rather than helpful. There are multiple organisms which pesticides affect, including poisoning humans, domestic animals, bees, while also causing a loss in crops, reducing populations of natural enemies, and growing pesticide resistance. Specifically, in the case of bee poisonings, the overall death of these bees results in the loss of 135 million dollars each year. There is also evidence that recently there have been more bee poisonings since 1962, since highly toxic insecticides are being used, while greater amounts of insecticides are being dispensed. Pesticides are also deployed through aircraft, allowing drifting problems. Additionally, insecticides are used by many populations other than farmers, including “golf-course managers, gardeners, and other landowners” to simply deal with their daily unwanted pests that will damage their flowers and crops (Williams, 2014, p. 33). If these insecticides are sprayed near a bee’s habitat or nest site, they will be harmed either immediately or subtly in regards to their behavior. Even worse, there are certain pesticides which treat seeds and thus allow it to be present in the plant’s tissue. This means that bees are being exposed to pesticides through pollen and nectar. In a study by Guseman, the goal was to discover which combinations of compounds were causing bees the most harm, so that a solution could be found. According to the study, bees are exposed to potentially dangerous pesticides in two distinct ways, through “in-hive miticides to control parasites and through the foraging activity of adult bees who collect pollen
In 1952, India was the first country to introduce pesticides to the world. Over sixty years ago, the world population stood at approximately 2.7 billion. Today the world population stands at over 7.4 billion (worldometers, 2016). Due to the upturn in global population, pesticides play a crucial role in the ability to produce adequate food to sustain our ever growing population. Pesticides not only carry multiple benefits for public health, they also help to boost our economy.
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.
What is resistance? Resistance is the ability of a significant portion of a pest population to survive a pesticide at rates that once killed most individuals of that population. In other word, it is defined as `a heritable change in the sensitivity of a pest population to a pesticide that is resulting in the failure of a product or correct application of pesticide to achieve the expected level of control of insect.