Pesticides Which Were Invented to Destroy Large

Pesticides which were invented to destroy large quantities of insects that were harming crops, are actually causing a great deal of harm to the environment. This has been an issue particularly in the agricultural field. Farmers and those in the agricultural field have for a long time had to deal with insects which try to attack their crops and ruin their potential harvest. To combat these bugs, scientists were able to create chemical combinations which would kill the insects and then protect the crops which could then be sold and given to humans. These chemicals, such as DDT, were very successful and farmers had more to harvest than they had in years past (Wright 2007). However, there was an unforeseen result of the mass spraying of poisonous chemicals on the food stuffs. Human beings were negatively affected in a multitude of ways including contracting illnesses as a result of ingesting pesticides and also indirect negative effects.

Few people realize that the pesticides that are sprayed on foods are not washed off the product before it gets to the consumer in the supermarket. Often when a person buys an apple or a pear in the supermarket, it will still have at least some traces of the pesticides on it. Even fruits that are washed off may still have some remnants of the chemical still on them. Experts state that all produce should be washed before consumption, but even this is not completely safe because there are some pesticides which react with the skin of the fruit and become absorbed into the peel. It is not enough to just wash the fruit or vegetable; the peel should also be removed (Wright 2007). This is not full-proof either as there have been cases where the poison was actually able to move through the skin and into the actual fruit itself. This not only makes fruits and vegetables purchased from the store dangerous, but also they are dangerous as products that are then processed into other food materials which could then potentially be contaminated by the poison.

Task 2:

Some argue that even though pesticides are doing some environmental harm, their benefits far outweigh the negatives. These people believe that due to the large number of human beings on the planet, the population needs more food to be produced. Pesticides in the modern era are still sprayed, but technological advancement has also led to insertion of pesticides into the seeds of the plants so that they repel insects from the very onset of growth. In the words of Steve Savage (2012), "Pesticides, whether delivered via chemical applications or plant expression, are good and useful tools because they preserve yield and thus increase the efficiency of all the other inputs to the crop (land, water, fuel, fertilizer, labor…). Without pesticides too much of the food grown by farmers goes to waste and cannot be used for either direct sale or use in other food products.

Another positive aspect of pesticide use is that it keeps the costs of fruits and vegetables down. Organic foods, which are grown without the use of pesticides cost more money but science has not proven whether or not the nutritional value of organic foods outweighs those grown with the use of pesticides (Wilcox 2012). Exposure to pesticides has definitely been shown to have harmful effects in people, but some scientists argue that the average consumer does not have enough interaction with these chemicals on a regular basis to receive these kind of effects. In addition, supporters of pesticides state that even product which is called organic may not be completely safe.

Conclusion:

There is empirical research that shows there are decided health dangers with exposure to pesticides. People are exposed to the chemicals even without direct contact to the pesticides. They are exposed through food and through contact with people who have been exposed to the pesticides. Besides dangers to humans, pesticides can also seriously damage the animal and bird populations. In addition, the killing off of some insects can lead to the starvation of some animals or the overpopulation of some species based on no longer having competition for food sources. Although pesticides prevent the destruction of food stuffs by insects and some birds, they are too dangerous, so that the numbers of benefits they provide to humanity are not worth the costs.

Questions:

1. Do you know what can happen to animals that eat insects and animals that have been killed by poison?

a. They can be eaten by scavengers and then the scavengers get poisoned as well (Lear 1997).

2. Have pesticides been responsible for the destruction of certain ecosystems?

a. In Borneo, insects were killed with pesticides. Cats ate the insects and then died too. After that the rat population over ran the island spreading disease. In that case "fixing" one problem created an even bigger problem.

3. Do endangered populations do better when pesticides are removed from the environment?

a. The animal populations will increase in population and avoid extinction such as what happened with the American Bald Eagle population.

4. Besides ingestion, how can poisons get into the human system and negatively impact the human population?

a. Besides the danger of direct ingestion of the poison, there is the danger of the poisonous chemicals which can get to human beings in other ways. For example, there is the danger that the chemicals will infect our water supply with toxicity (Wright 2007). Pesticides are sprayed on the foods in large amounts by a high-powered delivery system, most often by airplane. When it rains over the area, then much of the poison washes off of the food and the poisonous water drips down and either is absorbed into the ground itself or it winds down to local water ways which eventually deposit pesticide-ridden liquid into our lakes and rivers. This water is drunk not only by human beings, but also by animals and the fish that live in that particular place.

5. Does the negative impact to fish by pesticides change your view on whether they should be used?

a. It is has been proved by scientists that some of the pesticides that are used create a chemical change in the fish and are absorbed into the creature's fatty tissues. When a human being eats that fish, they are also consuming the poison. Certain fish that are more prone to tissue absorption have been labeled by some governments as no longer fit for human consumption.