The Destructive Use of Pesticides in Agriculture Essay example

However, agriculture is the central issue. While pesticides are being used to keep crops alive, a benefit to farmers, the natural ecosystem is not exactly experiencing the same effect; the ecosystem is being destroyed. An effective way agriculturists can improve on decreasing the amount of pesticides is to use continuous production, where it is reusing the fields, without wasting and hurting them.

”On those visits, I feel not only the spirit of the local people…and the seasonal change.”(345).Nowadays seasonal variation in industrial societies is minimized by importing many products that mature in specific seasons from different parts of the world. Technologies however, are impacting on our lives. “DDT would exert incredible selective pressure for mutations that would confer resistance” (347), it killed malaria-carrying mosquitoes but in few years large numbers of mosquitoes will return. It also has ecological damage the compound is ingested by many organisms, become concentrated up the food chain in a process called biomagnification. It causes heavy bird mortality.

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

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 95% of the pesticides used on residential lawns are possible or probable

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

Before doing research I was unaware of these alternatives and all it took was a couple of minutes for me to realize we should be supporting other methods. One in particular is called the integrated pest management (IPM). According to the National Center for Healthy Housing, “IPM is effective, economical, and environmentally sensitive. It uses a combination of common-sense practices, information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction with the environment” (Zahm 2008). It represents the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment. Therefore, the first step to help reduce this issue would be to educate the public. Many do not understand the risks they are facing by allowing their environment to be contaminated with the chemicals produced in pesticides. Also, it would help to join campaigns to enforce federal agencies to require a stricter law that will suspend pesticides that are linked to causing human health problems. Although, it would be unrealistic to get rid of pesticides completely, the public should be seeking to abolish the most dangerous type of pesticides and that would be a start. I would love to find an organization like this by where I live and recommend people to join and volunteer. So, in regards to pesticides I think the things that this organization is raising public attention and helping resolve this concern. Crops that are

Anything that is consumed by an organism inherits some of the properties of what it has consumed. Pesticides are beneficial chemicals to farmers as they provide profits for them and less work, effort, and time to deal with the problem affecting their crops. This process can be harmful to humans as they are consuming products which were sprayed by these harmful chemicals and therefore ingesting part of those chemicals. ARTICLE CITATION according to

However, pesticides are used to control pests, which include insects, mice and other animals, unwanted plants (weeds), fungi, or microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. Often misunderstood to refer only to the insecticides, the term pesticide also applies to herbicides (that control weeds), fungicides (that control fungi), and substances used to control other pests. In addition, because many pests tend to travel between farms, resistance to pesticides can evolve at an inefficient rate. Farmers can increase the economic efficiency of chemical use by adapting integrated pest and resistance management practices, such as rotating crops and pesticides, reducing reliance on a single pesticide, adjusting planting and harvesting dates, scouting fields, and using more benign, and biological control

This article talks about what a pesticide is and how it affects people. This is relevant to my research topic because I will be using pesticides on plants to measure the growth. In order to do this, I will need to know what a pesticide is and what it does. A unique feature of this article is that it includes videos explaining the topic, and links at the bottom of the page to look further into pesticides. A strength is that the article is very specific and on-point. However, it doesn't show much more than just what a pesticide is. There is no bias in this source.

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

This suggests that the roadsides was once beautiful and bloomed with healthy and lively vegetation; however, they are now destroyed due to the use of pesticides. From these examples, it can be shown that even though pesticide is beneficial, its deadly effects outweigh its benefits; in addition, it is a dangerous substances to the environment, organisms, and even human.

Pesticides, which were invented to destroy large quantities of insects that were harming crops, are actually causing a great deal of harm to the environment. This has been an issue particularly in the agricultural field. Farmers and those in the agricultural field have for a long time had to deal with insects which try to attack their crops and ruin their potential harvest. To combat these bugs, scientists were able to create chemical combinations which would kill the insects and then protect the crops which could then be sold and given to humans. These chemicals, such as DDT, were very successful and farmers had more to harvest than they had in years past (Wright 2007). However, there was an unforeseen result of the mass spraying of poisonous chemicals on the food stuffs. Human beings were negatively affected in a multitude of ways including contracting illnesses as a result of ingesting pesticides and also indirect negative effects. Because of this issue, the pesticides should be banned and non-chemical responses found to deal with the insect problem.

It is the role of EPA to determine that any cancer-causing pesticide or chemical may perhaps not be used despite of its health hazards. If a pesticides social, economic and environmental benefits are believed to have greater relevancies than risks, then there is a need to make food, air, water, and soils free from any form of toxic chemicals (EPA History 2017). Organically mature foods as well as sustainable pest control methods are very key issues to health environment and

Pesticides also have a great affect on the food we consume. Food is one of the great necessities of life. Yet, a growing amount of evidence indicates that the food supply is being contaminated with pesticides (Mott & Snyder vii). These pesticides are most commonly

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