How Can Chemical Pesticides Used On Foods Endanger The Public?

Agriculture is the most fundamental resource of society. Without it, humans could not live, especially in the ways we do now where people reside in cities. This means that those cities could not exist without large scale agriculture to sustain them. Since agriculture is such a necessity, people have developed methods to gain more from their land. One of the many solutions besides machinery they have developed to produce higher crop yields is through the use of pesticides. However, those pesticides which have resulted in high crop yields have come at price, and that is human health itself. This seems rather contradictory. Pesticides were designed to help people and society by increased the success of producing high crop yields, and they

In the early 1940’s, a new technology emerged that was able to successfully combat crop-damaging and disease-carrying insects. A new age of synthetic chemical pesticides use arose. After their impressive success in fighting deadly insect-borne diseases during World War II, pesticides were used widely to combat insect pests for agriculture and public health. Few people challenged the benefits of the new scientific and technological products and many embraced pesticide use with enthusiasm. Despite its success, doubts about pesticide use began to appear a decade later in the 1950’s, when the government began a vigorous pesticide campaign across the country against insect pests. Scientists began reporting heavy losses of avian and

The introduction of chemicals in daily life has been met with an abundance of confusion and fear. When introducing the world of chemicals to food, the knee jerk reaction is often to shun the very idea. Of course, this response is to be expected. The word chemical is mentally correlated with unnatural materials formed in a lab or a radiation riddled mess. However, the negative effects of chemicals in food has been exacerbated over the years. Fear has driven public consciousness to ignorance. Corn, for example, is subject to pesticide treatment—one being Glyphosate. Said Glyphosate has been accused of being a carcinogen to humans. While such a fearful correlation may cause concern, there is a question on the sentiments validity. While questioning the effectiveness of chemicals is understandable, the use of chemicals is not only a common tool in the food industry’s arsenal, but a safe practice conducted on the food sold and consumed every day.

As Gliessman, an agricultural researcher, says in Agroecology, “conventional agriculture is built around two related goals: the maximization of production and the maximization of profit. In pursuit of these goals, a host of practices have been developed without regard for their unintended, long-term consequences” (3). The industrial food industry has created a process to produce as many crops as possible in the quickest amount of time to put onto the market. The several ways utilized to achieve these goals are those that are harmful to the consumer. Two main threats are genetic modification, and chemicals. These issues are a spark of concern in addressing the health of consumers. Food industries often try to tantalize their audience with the promise of untouched, pristine produce when in reality these foods are heavily tainted by pesticides or are genetically modifieds. “One will find this obliviousness represented in virgin purity in the advertisements of the food industry, in which food wears as much makeup as the actors. If one’s whole knowledge of food from these advertisements, one would not know that the various edibles were ever living creatures, or that they all come from the soil… “ (Berry 147). People are informed little about the pesticides that we often ingest from products like these and little do people know the negative effects of GMOs.

This scholarly text book, part of a series called Current Controversies, is composed of primary sources taken from a diversity of informational categories including books, newspapers, periodicals, international government documents, and the publications of organizations. The authors in this series examine some of the issues that typical arise in the debate about pesticides, including whether they are detrimental to human health, animals and the environment, whether they are essential to curtailing international hunger, and what the future of pesticides might be. This book widely mirrors the mosaic of opinions in both parts of the debate regarding the benefits and harmful effects

Use of pesticide in farming has long been a topic of debate in both developed and developing countries. Significantly, Canadian farming also relies heavily on the use of pesticides. In Canada, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, a division of Health Canada regulates the use of pesticides. Although, the Ministry of Environment has banned the sale of a large number of highly toxic “pesticides for cosmetic purposes on lawns, gardens, parks and schoolyards….but the ban makes exceptions for agriculture, forestry and golf courses, and for public health or safety issues” (News Staff, 2009). However, this regulation does not wholly satisfy the majority of Canadians that supports pesticide bans on a larger scale due environmental and health concerns.

For many years, companies have been making pesticides for farmers to rid themselves from unwanted pests. However, they are also ridding themselves of the bees who are trying to help and protect the crops. Without having the bees pollinating the crops for the farmers, there is nothing for the vegetation to grow in a healthy process. Pesticides have actually been found by beekeepers and researchers, to be one of the causes for the decrease of bees. An entomologist from South Dakota becomes disregarded by his supervisors because they do not want that information getting out, Jonathan Lundgren, a USDA entomologist in Brookings, S.D., said “in civil service documents that while the agency did not stop publication of the research, supervisors harassed him, tried to stop him from speaking out, and interfered with new projects” (StarTribune). Because these pesticides that are being sold out to farmers, they are doing more harm to the bees than they are being beneficial to the crops.

To begin, Pesticides are used to kill insects and unwanted bacteria that destroy the growth of crops. Everyone becomes directly or indirectly affected by these chemicals. Unfortunately, society came up

This paper argues that there needs to be a greater harmonization of legislation regulating highly hazardous pesticides used in agriculture within all nations. With the numerous studies conducted illustrating the harmful effects to human health and environment, this stricter control of legislation across developed and developing countries is of utmost importance. This requires each nation to have a complete understanding of the methods and practices used to regulate pesticides in other countries and work together to converge the various approaches. It is the role of the government to find a responsible balance between enabling judicious pesticide use where such use is necessary to achieve desirable crop production levels, and reducing the

The way that Modern Agriculture produces our food involves our health because many of the things we eat. Chicken, meats, vegetables and fruits all contain GMOs and other substances that may be bad for us. In the past years food con-tamination has increased, causing illnesses and even deaths. Most of the food that is found in markets as well as in fast food restaurants contain lots of calories and lots of unhealthy ingredi-ents, for example, corn, high fructose, corn syrup, sugar and so on. However, the Big Agriculture hides these ingredients from us from using headlines like "healthy, nutritional, no artificial flavors and whole grains" to name a few, to persuade us on buying these

Facing infertility issues? Now you might have to check the level of pesticides you have been eating through your diet.

Where does our food come from? Kathy Dummer in her article called How safe is our food? says that “The worldwide increase of food availability is due to technological advances in food production, pesticides, and genetically altered seeds, with 44 percent of the grains produced in the U.S. being genetically modified (GM). “ Most and if not all the food that America eats has grain in it. Which means that some of the food that we are consuming is genetically modified. They aren’t grow naturally they are produced by a factory then goes to a farm to grow. The farmers have to spray these pesticides on the seeds so that the bugs don’t eat away at the plants. But the bugs are starting to get stronger against the pesticides so they are adding more chemicals

Watching the documentary Food Inc, there were a few points that stood out most to me. I think one of the most important concerns that were brought up is the consumers not knowing the truth behind the food. Whether there is actual harm in our food or not, we still need to know what is going into our food. The harm that may actually be inside our food can be caused by how easy it is to produce crap food now days. Making mass produced food is a lot easier than it has been in the past because genetics have changed animals into growing faster and fatter. This causes harm to the environment by creating factories for these foods to be made, which causes pollution by emitting many CO2 gasses. However this isn’t a concern for the producer. The producer is mainly focused on money they receive even if it causes harm to the environment or the consumers. The use of pesticides and other substances are used in foods, whether it’s in the production of corn growing or in the food in general to help keep germs out. This also causes harm to the consumer and environment that we should be aware of.

The website on Safe Chemical Policy protest current policies on pesticides as too strict, and they have some valid points. They point to the cost and time to pay registration fees and to submit data. While the time spent is perhaps unavoidable if companies are committed to obtaining accurate data, large fees for those doing the right thing by registering their product to ensure that it is safe is counterintuitive. Large fees serve to dissuade those who genuinely care about the wellbeing of their farm workers and customers, and such fees only encourage companies to seek out loopholes to get their product pass. The Safe Chemical Policy group also reveal that the registering process can take from 9 to 10 years. This may mean that the EPA and the agencies that also have a role in regulating pesticides are overloaded. So while pesticide use must be more regulated to stop harmful pesticides from making it to the market, and recalling those that are dangerous, there must also be reform to unneeded policies that only serve to inhibit those companies with good intentions. These changes will most likely have to come from conscientious people such as you and me. Changes may come from the federal or state governments, but it is unlikely that such reform will take place without popular support. At the present most people seem to care more about other issues which results in pesticide regulations being relegated to the sidelines. This may prove dangerous as pesticides are a worldwide danger that affect quite literally everyone, and may have more impact than we see today such as in the case of earlier pesticide

One concern about pesticides and herbicide usage is the amount of residues left on the end product of crops sprayed with the chemicals, and their effects on human health. (Williamson, 2007, p. 184). However, these effects are closely tested and levels are strictly regulated to ensure there is no danger from possible pesticide residues. Since 1910, many rules, regulations, and agencies have been formed to monitor the safety of the pesticides and herbicides used in conventional farming. These chemicals must meet specific safety standards in order to be registered for use, and regulations on levels of each product safe for use are also put in place. (Tafel et al.,2007, p.184). All pesticides are rigorously examined to ensure they have no significant effects on human health, or the environment. The residues in the food chain are closely monitored, and regularly tested, to ensure they are below legal limits. In a recent survey of residues