Most of those sales are herbicides paired with genetically modified seeds, but these numbers do not include sales of the seed itself. As the industry has exploded, the companies involved have grown and merged. The agrochemical industry has been politically powerful for many years. The ag chemical industry also influences the scientific research that guides policy-making: as public spending on agricultural research and development has been cut precipitously, industry now funds a much larger share.
For in-depth information on crop production and its sustainability issues, read our report, The FoodPrint of Crops. The outcry following the publication of the book Silent Spring — which documented the detrimental environmental effects of overuse of pesticides — resulted in DDT being banned in the US and created an awareness of how pesticides can impact the wider environment. Pesticides that are sprayed on crops leave a residue on the dead plant material that settles into the soil and can run off into waterways or leach into groundwater.
A study performing tests across 38 states found glyphosate in the majority of rivers, streams, ditches and wastewater treatment plants, as well as in 70 percent of rainfall samples. In addition to endangering wild ecosystems, insecticides also cause problems on the farm — many of these species are important pollinators for fruit, nut, and vegetable crops. Neonicotinoids or neonics , a popular class of pesticides that attack the nervous system of insects, have grown in popularity since the s due to their comparatively low toxicity to mammals and humans.
However, a widening body of research links neonics to decline of wild and domesticated pollinators; bumblebee colonies exposed to neonics in controlled trials grew more slowly and produced fewer queens than those without exposure 22 and experiments in honey bees have found neonics reduce impair learning and communication.
While the EPA banned 12 neonic formulations in , many more remain on the market. Another on-farm problem stemming from over-reliance on pesticides is the evolution of pesticide resistance in insects, weeds, and diseases.
Like all living things, weed and pest populations evolve over time. However, natural genetic variation means that occasional individual pests might be resistant to the pesticide and survive.
When the same pesticides are applied year after year on a massive scale, these resistant individuals quickly multiply until the whole population is resistant to the pesticide.
Herbicide resistance is increasingly common, and some areas may have multiple herbicide-resistant weed species in their fields, making weed control even more difficult. Sometimes, these new formulations contain older, more hazardous chemicals like dicamba, atrazine, and 2,4-D.
In addition to keeping farmers on a kind of treadmill of buying new formulations of pesticides, pesticide resistance can have serious off-farm consequences. This poses a huge difficulty for public health professionals trying to prevent malaria and other diseases. For example, dicamba, which was previously approved only for ground spreading, was EPA-approved in for aerial spraying in conjunction with soybean seeds genetically engineered to be resistant to the chemical.
While farmers were optimistic that dicamba would be a useful tool against glyphosate-resistant superweeds, the situation quickly soured; dicamba is extremely volatile: even when applied according to label instructions, it can turn back into gas and drift several miles, killing or damaging any plant material wherever it lands.
In this case, dicamba drift damaged 3. Rather than rejecting this damaging chemical altogether and sanctioning the seed and chemical manufacturer for bad practices, the soybean growers decided instead to plant dicamba-resistant seeds; this has further expanded the use of the herbicide, benefiting the bottom line of the seed and chemical manufacturer, and also increasing the possibilities of dicamba drift.
Pesticides also pose serious risks to human health and safety. Because of their widespread use, people in every part of our food system — producers, workers and consumers — can be exposed to potentially harmful levels of pesticides.
As part of the approval process for new pesticides, the EPA assesses possible health impacts, drafts usage guidelines and establishes tolerances, or amounts allowed on or in a food. The people most at risk from pesticides are the farmworkers who apply them and who work in the fields where they are used. For example, farmworkers may not be given required protective equipment, or could be forced to work on recently-sprayed fields with unabsorbed pesticides.
His family owns a farm in rural Ohio. He was grumbling about how everyone praised the local organic farms for being so environmentally-conscientious, even though they sprayed their crops with pesticides all the time while his family farm got no credit for being pesticide-free they're not organic because they use a non-organic herbicide once a year.
I didn't believe him at first, so I looked into it: turns out that there are over 20 chemicals commonly used in the growing and processing of organic crops that are approved by the US Organic Standards. And, shockingly, the actual volume usage of pesticides on organic farms is not recorded by the government.
Why the government isn't keeping watch on organic pesticide and fungicide use is a damn good question, especially considering that many organic pesticides that are also used by conventional farmers are used more intensively than synthetic ones due to their lower levels of effectiveness.
According to the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy , the top two organic fungicides, copper and sulfur, were used at a rate of 4 and 34 pounds per acre in 1. In contrast, the synthetic fungicides only required a rate of 1. The sad truth is, factory farming is factory farming, whether its organic or conventional. Many large organic farms use pesticides liberally. They're organic by certification, but you'd never know it if you saw their farming practices. As Michael Pollan, best-selling book author and organic supporter, said in an interview with Organic Gardening,.
What makes organic farming different, then? It's not the use of pesticides , it's the origin of the pesticides used. Organic pesticides are those that are derived from natural sources and processed lightly if at all before use. This is different than the current pesticides used by conventional agriculture, which are generally synthetic.
It has been assumed for years that pesticides that occur naturally in certain plants, for example are somehow better for us and the environment than those that have been created by man. As more research is done into their toxicity, however, this simply isn't true, either. Many natural pesticides have been found to be potential - or serious - health risks. Take the example of Rotenone. Rotenone was widely used in the US as an organic pesticide for decades 3.
Because it is natural in origin, occurring in the roots and stems of a small number of subtropical plants, it was considered " safe " as well as " organic ".
However, research has shown that rotenone is highly dangerous because it kills by attacking mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of all living cells. Research found that exposure to rotenone caused Parkinson's Disease-like symptoms in rats 4 , and had the potential to kill many species, including humans. The point I'm driving home here is that just because something is natural doesn't make it non-toxic or safe.
Many bacteria, fungi and plants produce poisons, toxins and chemicals that you definitely wouldn't want sprayed on your food.
Just last year, nearly half of the pesticides that are currently approved for use by organic farmers in Europe failed to pass the European Union's safety evaluation that is required by law 5. Among the chemicals failing the test was rotenone, as it had yet to be banned in Europe.
Not only are organic pesticides not safe, they might actually be worse than the ones used by the conventional agriculture industry.
Canadian scientists pitted 'reduced-risk' organic and synthetic pesticides against each other in controlling a problematic pest, the soybean aphid. They found that not only were the synthetic pesticides more effective means of control, the organic pesticides were more ecologically damaging , including causing higher mortality in other, non-target species like the aphid's predators 9.
Of course, some organic pesticides may fare better than these ones did in similar head-to-head tests, but studies like this one reveal that the assumption that natural is better for the environment could be very dangerous. Even if the organic food you're eating is from a farm which uses little to no pesticides at all, there is another problem: getting rid of pesticides doesn't mean your food is free from harmful things.
Between and , over 10, people fell ill due to foods contaminated with pathogens like E. That's because organic foods tend to have higher levels of potential pathogens. One study, for example, found E. The same study also found Salmonella only in samples from organic farms, though at a low prevalence rate. The reason for the higher pathogen prevalence is likely due to the use of manure instead of artificial fertilizers, as many pathogens are spread through fecal contamination. Conventional farms often use manure, too, but they use irradiation and a full array of non-organic anti-microbial agents as well, and without those, organic foods run a higher risk of containing something that will make a person sick.
In the end, it really depends on exactly what methods are used by crop producers. Both organic and conventional farms vary widely in this respect. Some conventional farms use no pesticides. Some organic farms spray their crops twice a month.
Of course, some conventional farms spray just as frequently, if not more so, and some organic farms use no pesticides whatsoever. Various microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, and protozoans, can cause microbial contamination in hospitals, public health clinics, and food processing facilities. EPA registers antimicrobial products intended to control these microorganisms and help prevent the spread of numerous diseases. Avian flu, sometimes called bird flu, is an infection that occurs naturally and chiefly in birds.
Infections with these viruses can occur in humans, but the risk is generally low for most people. EPA works to register and make available antimicrobial pesticide products sanitizers or disinfectants that may be used to kill avian influenza virus on inanimate surfaces and to help prevent the spread of avian flu viruses.
These products are typically used by the poultry industry to disinfect their facilities. Natural and Biological Pesticides control pests using things found in nature, or man-made versions of things found in nature. Pheromones are biologically active chemicals used to attract insects or disrupt their mating behavior.
The ratio of chemicals in the mixture is often species-specific. Plant Growth Regulators are used to alter the growth of plants. For example, they may induce or delay flowering. Repellents are designed to repel unwanted pests, often by taste or smell. Rodenticides are used to kills rodents like mice, rats, and gophers.
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