The Joy Ride is Over: The need to move away from the use of pesticides has been recognized for decades. Nevertheless the new ag academic priesthood, in tandem with the pesticide industry, continues to promote the use of pesticides as a central feature of modern agricultural systems. A media article published over 20 years ago outlined the problems that arise from an overreliance on the use of pesticides. Alternatives were already widely available with successful pesticide-reduction programs documented even at the national level “wherever farmers and policy makers have made a serious commitment to do so”. However “American IPM experts and even the American Farm Bureau Federation” agreed that unless the US shows a similar commitment, “the transition to IPM here is likely to continue to be slow and piecemeal.” For several decades now, according to this article, Agricultural Scientists have acknowledged that, 1) We need to move away from an over reliance on the use of pesticides 2) The excessive use of pesticides often leads to more problems in the farm 3) Farmers and entire production regions are able to reduce pesticide use by over 50% without sacrificing yields or profits. The article, published 24 years ago by the conservative weekly magazine U.S. News and World Report, clearly outlined the need to move away from an overreliance on the use of pesticides: On alternative controls, and IPM, according to this article, “Preventive medicine. Not surprisingly, there is new interest in an option that has been around for decades: a multipronged strategy known as integrated pest management that many experts say can reduce pesticide use by 50 percent or more without lowering yields or profits.” On the effectiveness of Integrated Pest Management programs, “Many IPM programs have been astonishingly successful. After years of heavy pesticide use had only worsened the brown plant hopper problem in rice fields, the Indonesian government in 1996 banned dozens of insecticides and invested millions of dollars in IPM training for farmers. In the next four years, the countrys pesticide use fell 50 percent, rice yields rose 12 percent and the brown plant hopper problem faded away.” And, “In the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, IPM has allowed cotton farmers to go from 12 sprayings per year to just four. Besides reducing risks to wildlife or human health, such efforts carry a less obvious benefit: Resistance develops more slowly when pests are zapped less often.” On the problem with pesticides: “In recent years, however, pesticides shortcomings have grown harder to ignore in light of mounting pesticide resistance and destruction of beneficial insects. In fact, a growing number of agricultural experts now argue that reducing pesticide use can actually decrease pests. Pest control has reached a turning point. says pest control expert Robert Metcalf of the University of Illinois at Urbana.” On the myth of pesticides as a silver bullet: “Silver bullet. When DDT, the first widely used synthetic pesticide hit the market in 1946, it looked like the silver bullet that would wipe out insect pests forever. Before DDT, American farmers lost about a third of their crops each year to insects, weeds and disease. Today, with an annual pesticide bill exceeding $4 billion, farmers still lose the same one-third share - a loss that mounts into the tens of billions of dollars each year.” And, More ominous, several important insects have developed resistance to every major insecticide. In the state of Gujarat in India, for instance, the mosquitoes that transmit malaria are resistant to every affordable insecticide, and malaria rates are surging. Similarly, in the northeastern United States, the Colorado potato beetle has become resistant to at least 15 chemicals, leaving potato growers dependent on a compound not yet formally approved for potatoes. Pesticides actually ‘create’ new pest problems, “Pesticides also create new pests because they destroy the spiders, wasps and predatory beetles that naturally keep most plant-feeding insect populations in check. The brown plant hopper that plagued Indonesian rice fields in the 1970s and 80s was not a serious problem until 1970, shortly after heavy insecticide use began. In the United States, such major pests as spider mites and the cotton bollworm were nuisances at most until spraying decimated their predators.” And on the problem with pesticide resistance, “In 1948, just 14 species of insects were resistant to one or more pesticides: more than 500 are resistant today. Even the bacterial insecticide Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. once touted as practically resistance-proof because of its complexity, is beginning to lose its effectiveness on a few agricultural pests.” Citation: BOB HOLMES. The joy ride is over. U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT (Weekly Magazine). SEPTEMBER 14, 1992. File, pesticides effect-92.doc ///// /////// Post Note, While the article above did not focus on health issues, below is a more recent quote from the American Academy of Pediatrics, summarizing their concerns about the exposure of children to pesticides, as published in the journal Pediatrics, and below it, a link from a related report by PANNA. “Acute poisoning risks are clear, and understanding of chronic health implications from both acute and chronic exposure are emerging. Epidemiologic evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems. Related animal toxicology studies provide supportive biological plausibility for these findings. Recognizing and reducing problematic exposures will require attention to current inadequacies in medical training, public health tracking, and regulatory action on pesticides. Ongoing research describing toxicologic vulnerabilities and exposure factors across the life span are needed to inform regulatory needs and appropriate interventions. Policies that promote integrated pest management, comprehensive pesticide labeling, and marketing practices that incorporate child health considerations will enhance safe use.” Citation American Academy of Pediatrics. 2012. POLICY STATEMENT: Pesticide Exposure in Children, Pediatrics 130:e1757–e1763. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-2757 file: pestic children state 12.pdf Also link to another related report: panna.org/publication/generation-in-jeopardy //////
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 16:05:25 +0000
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