Look Ma, No Pesticides

Lauren Nischan
March 31, 2011

Population growth, consumer choice, and the issue of food waste combined have created a demand for food that surpasses our actual needs. The world thinks we need more food to feed the world, but not many people know that we already produce enough food to do so – or that most of it either ends up in the belly of a cow; plastics, pills, and chemicals; or in the garbage. Despite this, our desire for maximized food production continues to increase. This demand forces farmers to use any method they can to achieve maximum food production. Unfortunately, this leads to the excessive use of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals on our farms with little hope that the use will stop any time soon.

Few people know that fossil fuels are the main ingredient in commercial agricultural chemicals, including pesticides. Petroleum is used as a main ingredient, a synthesizer, and as the production energy source (How 2011). This is not only detrimental to the environment for its impact on pollution and climate change, but also our global economy. We continue to manufacture and utilize more pesticides (as well as plastics and other products) each year, yet we curse our dependency on oil and its foreign sources while screaming about the price. The massive amounts of fossil fuels used to create pesticides could instead be used for our homes and cars, and would even offset the costs in the U.S. Seed companies that patent Genetically Engineered (GE) seed say that they lessen the need for pesticides, but this is a false claim. The application of an incredibly potent herbicide is mandatory for GE seed to grow, not just in the beginning stages but also during every week in its lifecycle. How are we supposed to move towards more sustainable practices while reducing our dependency on oil when we continue to rely on pesticides for our food? The answer is complicated, but I can tell you that increasing organic production and/or labor on farms is a step in the right direction.

Pesticides are also one of the largest contributors to the contamination of water supplies and the degradation of soil quality. Roughly one billion pounds are applied on U.S. soil every year, primarily on agricultural land (Hamilton 2006). Pesticides lead to the contamination of over 70 percent of U.S. streams, making fish unsafe to eat and causing declines in wildlife populations (Hamilton 2006). Many ecosystems have been destroyed while our water is being contaminated because of pesticide use, yet we see little talk about this unless an interest group or the EPA recognizes the issue. If we were to take a serious and conscious look how pesticides have been impacting our ecosystems, maybe people would start to notice the science linking it to many of our health problems.

Cancer, birth defects, and neurological disorders have been on the rise since the early 1900s. Combined with other issues and lifestyle choices, pesticide consumption is a leading factor in the major health issues of today. Warren Porter, a research scientist at UW-Madison, has been conducting studies on the effects of pesticides for a decade. Hundreds of studies exist linking pesticides to health, but his studies directly link pesticide consumption to neurological disorders in children. He found that exposure to agricultural pesticides from conception through puberty directly causes birth defects and learning disabilities (Markham 2011). He mostly researched the effects of chlorpyrifos, the most common type of pesticide, which are also neurotoxins – yet they’re used on our every day foods? The only way to decrease levels in the body, he found, is to eat organic food. In as little as one week with an organic diet, chlorpyrifo levels in his children study groups’ dropped to undetectable levels (Markham 2011). The fact that the mass media hasn’t spread this information and that people will still medicate their children when this information is known worries me. I recommend checking out the article on his findings and looking for the conclusion to his work later this spring.

Until policies or an overwhelming amount of peoples’ voices are used to reduce the use of pesticides, we can only make the decision for ourselves: to eat food with pesticides or not to eat food with pesticides; that is the question.


Literature Cited

Hamilton, Pixie. "Widespread Pesticide Poisoning of Water Focus of Landmark Government Study." Beyond Pesticides. Beyond Pesticides, 03 Mar. 2006. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. .

"How a Pesticide Is Made - Material, Manufacture, Making, History, Used, Procedure, Product, Raw Materials, The Manufacturing Process of Pesticide, Quality Control, Byproducts/Waste." How Products Are Made. Advameg Inc. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. .

Markham, Lynn. "Female Mice Disabled by Parents’ Pesticide Intake." The Bayview Compass. The Bayview Compass, 27 Feb. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2011. .