Pesticides Essay Research Paper Should we be

Pesticides Essay, Research Paper

Should we be concerned with the extensive use of pesticides by farmers. I believe we should be aware of the consequences of pesticide use. The more we are exposed to pesticides, the greater the risk there is to the environment and our health. They are responsible for many environmental problems such as water pollution, soil degradation, and insect resistance. I will look at all the environmental impacts caused by pesticide use. But what led to the rise of the use of pesticides. Tremendous increase in crop production, profits, and pest control due to pesticide use are some of the reasons for this increase. There are many theories, which explain the rise of pesticides, and the influence pesticides have had on land use decisions by farmers. I will discuss several theories that try and explain this. Farmers have moved towards different farming techniques such as massive production of a single crop instead of the traditional style of producing several crops. Techniques such as these have resulted from the use of pesticides. An example of all this is in the Philippines. The government in the Philippines has given considerable attention to the environmental and health impacts of pesticides and has implemented strategies to decrease the impacts. Many empirical studies have been done on the Philippines, and I will look at several of these. Lastly, I will discuss the future research of pesticides and how we are looking towards a decrease in the use of pesticides, and how the amount of pesticide use has decreased in the past twenty years. But firstly, I will explain what a pesticide is.

What exactly is a pesticide. Well, pesticides are chemicals that kill or suppress pests. There are three main types of pesticides: herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Herbicides are the type of pesticides that act against weeds, while insecticides act against insects, and fungicides act against fungi (Reuveni, 1995). There are two classes of pesticides, organic and inorganic. All pesticides are toxic and have some effect on the environment and our health. We are still looking for the ideal pesticide, which targets only the insects we want, and is harmless to the environment. Pesticides have provided highly effective and relatively easy control of plant pests for the past one hundred years. The first major commercial pesticides were an arsenic compound introduced in 1867 to control insects and a copper-based preparation in 1885 to control fungi attacking grapes (Reuveni, 1995). However, a rapid increase in their use began in the 1930.s and 1940.s following the discovery of synthetic organic chemicals, such as DDT and thiram. With the discovery of these pesticides, farmers began using them more often. We have been familiar with pesticides for a long time now, and have discovered many benefits a long with many environmental impacts that come along with the use of pesticides.

Chemical pesticides cause widespread environmental problems and are the only toxic chemical deliberately introduced into the environment. Some problems include insect resistance, water pollution, destruction of non-target animals, soil degradation, ozone depletion, and localized pollution (Cooley, 1995; Crissman, 1998; Dinham, 1993; Reuveni, 1995). Over-use of pesticides creates insect resistance, destruction of natural enemies, and a resurgence of pest species leading in turn to increased spaying, which is also known as .the pesticide treadmill. (Dinham, 1993). A good example of this is in Gezira where they are dependent on cotton production. After World War II, pesticides were introduced in Gezira and the pesticide use increased steadily after the 1940.s. By 1976, pesticide use had reached 2,500 tonnes a year. Cotton production costs quadrupled over ten years, while yields fell to the same yields obtained before World War II. After a while, yields ended up being the same because of the pest resistance. The only change in Gezira from World War II till the early 1980.s were the widespread introduction of pesticides. The amount of cotton they produced remained about the same (Dinham, 1993). This shows that over-use of pesticides will take away from the advantages of using pesticides.

Another environmental impact caused by pesticides is water pollution. Residues from the pesticides leach into the water, which are harmful to anything in the water. A study was done for Lake Ichkeul in the North of Tunisia. This is an important bird sanctuary and a unique ecosystem because it is connected to the sea by a narrow channel, and renewal of its waters is rather slow. It also collects water from many small rivers, which cross a densely cultivated area, in which lager amounts of pesticides are used. The study showed after examining the lake sediments and bird.s eggs that they contained organochlorine and PCB residues (Cooley, 1995). Residues of pesticides have been found in many other bodies of water. Along with this, a pesticide hasn.t been found yet to target only the insect we want it to destroy. So, it not only kills pests but some other non-target animals as well. Fish in the waters that are contaminated with pesticide residues often die leading to a decrease in fish yields and losses of traditional fishing grounds. As well, intoxication of fish, birds, cattle, and wild animals is common during spraying season. The death of birds and fish due in part to pesticides is most common, which