The Beauty and the Beast of Pesticides

Using pesticides in agriculture is a common practice these days. Its the only effective way of controlling disease organisms, weeds, and insect pests. While there are a bunch of benefits to using pesticides, not many people really consider the downsides of using them, or eating foods that have been sprayed with them.

Pesticides are the only effective way to get rid of mass amounts of weeds, insects, disease, and the other annoying things that come with being a farmer. Since the crops aren't being eaten by birds or insects, and no diseases are killing them off, the crops often get a higher yield, and are a better quality. Not interesting? Think supply and demand. If a good portion of farmers are getting a high yield of lets say wheat, the price of products with wheat in them go down since there's an abundance of it around. Therefore, you get a couple extra dollars in your pocket. Is it worth it? Not quite.

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There is an extreme amount of risks that are involved in dealing with pesticides, and even a lot of long term effects you can get from eating food sprayed with pesticides. Pesticide is essentially poison. It attracts whatever it is trying to kill, and when ingested, that creature gets a nice, slow, painful death. To make that situation even better, long term pesticide residue on your food is slowly killing you. It also increases your risk of cancer over a long term period, which could kill you too. It's a lose-lose situation, really. And if you don't end up dying from that, it doesn't mean you're in the clear. Exposure to pesticides can cause nerve, skin, and eye irritation or damage, headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, and systematic poisoning. It disrupts your endocrine system , the regulation of hormones, the reproductive system, and embryonic development. Your body is supposed to be the safest place for your child, right? Not really. In fact, the Center for Disease Control shows that the average child between the age of 6 and 11 has unacceptable levels of organophosphorus pesticides, chloryrifos, and methyl parathion, both which are known to have neuro-toxic properties.

If you happen to be one of those people who honestly just don't care about the risks that this stuff poses to people, never fear, I have plenty of environmental facts too! If you're one of those people who just doesn't care at all, well, I don't know how you've made it this far.

When pesticides get sprayed, natural resources get degraded from that residue entering streams, or leaching into the groundwater, contaminating the soil and water. That residue accumulates in the water, slowly poisoning the people who drink it, and it also pollutes the air from all those chemicals floating up into the atmosphere. Atrazine was found in 94% of all United States drinking water. How about that, 94% of the country is being poisoned. Most people probably aren't even aware that it's happening.

That pesticide which is supposed to be helping the farmers actually ends up hurting them in the long run. Pesticides damage agricultural land by harming beneficial insect species, soil microorganisms, and worms. They reduce concentrations of essential plant nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, all that good stuff that plants need to actually grow. So how is a farmer supposed to stay a farmer if he's slowly ruining the soil he's using? Thousands of dollars spent on fertilizer, I guess. Also, pesticide residue can harm or kill non-target plants, birds, fish, and other wildlife. So in reality, pesticides are slowly killing you AND the environment off.

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Avoiding foods that have pesticides on them is hard to do these days. However, there are a few ways to get past it a little bit. Try growing your own vegetables at home, if you can. If not, you can buy organic food at the grocery store. Its a lot more expensive than regular food, but in the long run it might be worth it. You might just end saving yourself from a pesticide caused cancer, or death.