Discussion: The problem with pesticides

If you read my discussion piece from 2 days ago, you'd notice the comment my brother made. I thank him for pointing out why it is I'm specifically separating the topics of crops grown with chemical assistance and genetically-modified crops. What he was talking about isn't necessarily how most eco-warriors regard GM food...of any kind.

So, pesticides. Why are they used? They began to be used when farmers realised they could keep away weeds, bugs and pests with little effort and have a stronger crop yield. So pesticides double up as fertilisers in a weird way. Fair enough. A quick history of the chemical DDT, found at the top of this quick list of pesticides, pretty much sums up the general attitudes towards pesticides.

But they're still being used. The question is why. Is it because manufacturers and users have no empathy for others in their society? Do they have little care about the disappearing bees and the massive effect this will have on most ecosystems? As is always the case with us silly humans, I don't think the answer is so black and white.

Since chemical fertilisers are a man-made manufacture, which happen to be consumed by humans, they need to be rigorously tested and registered as safe before being sold on the wider market. The majority are. So the divide between those that do or don't use such products doesn't actually illustrate a divide between the evil agricultural corporations and the saintly organic farmers, it's rather that there are people who feel that a tiny amount of poison doesn't do anyone any harm while there are others who would rather not ingest any at all. I'm more in the latter camp, but I've noticed with my buying habits that I seem to prioritise the shortest distance a food product has travelled rather than the method with which it was grown. That I find interesting in itself.

This does raise another question: if various societies wish to know whether a product has been organically produced or if it is filled with sugar and fat, why don't products display information regarding which chemicals were used in their production? Or would that be too complicated?

Mind you, there are additional problems with using chemicals in crop production, not just limited to how safe their ingestion is. The article I've already mentioned does briefly skim over the wider problems and spread of such chemicals: they can remain in soil for a long time thus slowly poisoning soil used for crops, they spread through natural waterways and within creatures, they infect various creatures that ingest them... these genuine consequences make chemical products harder to defend.

Such products are even more difficult to defend when they have directly harmed humans. Click on this link and scroll down to "It's safer in a hive". What makes the various stories of being damaged by reckless chemical use even more tragic is that they highlight a lack of stringency in regulations of such products. Well...back in 2004 at least, but I haven't heard of any new laws strengthening these regulations in the UK. I mean, really? You're not obliged to warn those nearby if you're using chemicals with possibly damaging effects?