However, as studies reveal, alternative means of controlling pests should be implemented because food production will be maintained. Nikki van der Gaag, author of the article entitled “Pick Your Poison,” comments that “World hunger is not caused by food shortages: the world today produces more food per person than ever before. People are hungry because they are too poor to buy the food available, not because there is not enough” . She continues by stating that big corporations want to maintain pesticide use strictly because pesticides brought the agro-chemical business thirty-one billion dollars in 1998. She concludes by contending that other ways of farming are just as productive as farming with the use of pesticides. J. Robert Hatherill, author of the article entitled “Safer Modes of Pest Control,” adds that society today is reevaluating the use of pesticides, and clearly, alternative solutions of pest control must be utilized. He concludes by revealing that the estimated proportion of United States food supply lost to pests is thirty-seven percent today, six percent higher than it was in 1940, a time when far fewer pesticides were being used. Donella H. Meadows, author of the article entitled “Our Food, Our Future,” insists that there is strong evidence that organic methods of farming can produce just as much food as farming with pesticides. Meadows continues by noting that the Rodale Institute, a nonprofit research facility, conducted a study that showed organic farming was equally profitable to farming with pesticides. She concludes by pointing out that John Haberern, president of the Rodale Institute, says that they have scientifically proven that organic agriculture works. As data proves, alternative methods of farming are just as productive as farming with the use of pesticides.
More importantly, information shows, drinking water safety will be improved. The article entitled “New EPA Regulations are Only Hope for Clean Water,” published in the Atlanta Constitution, states that the nation is facing high levels of water contamination which are not rectified. The article continues by noting that water pollution comes from applications of chemicals such as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides on farmlands. The article concludes by pointing out that the Environmental Protection Agency believes, over forty percent of the nation’s lakes, rivers, and streams are not clean enough for swimming and fishing because of pollutants like pesticides. Gregory L. Poe, author of the article entitled “Maximizing the Environmental Benefits per Dollar Expended: an Economic Interpretation and Review of Agricultural Environmental Benefits and Costs,” believes that one of the leading sources of contamination of public and private supplies of water is agricultural pesticides. He continues by asserting that “Nationwide, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has detected the presence of 74 pesticides in groundwater in 38 states”. Poe concludes by pointing out that a study conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture projects that nearly fifty-four million people could be negatively affected by agricultural contamination of groundwater. Payal Sampat, author of the congressional testimony entitled “Global Access to Safe Water,” comments that over two-thirds of water samples at the Central Columbia Plateau aquifer, which lies under Washington and Idaho, contained multiple pesticides. Sampat continues by stating that “The United States Geological Survey detected two or more pesticides in groundwater at nearly a quarter of the sites sampled across the United States between 1993 and 1995”. Sampat reiterates that the nation needs to find alternatives to pesticides to combat the growing water pollution problem.
Consequently, as information has proven, alternative methods of pest control should be implemented because food production will be maintained. Alternative methods of farming are just as productive as farming with the use of pesticides. More importantly, drinking water safety will be improved. The less that pesticides are being used, the less water contamination occurs. Most importantly, overall human and animal health will be improved. The use of pesticides damages or kills living organisms, as research has indicated. If alternative means of controlling pests were implemented because food production will be maintained, the global economy will remain as stable as it is today. The purity of drinking water across the globe will be vastly improved if alternative methods of pest control were implemented. If alternative methods of pest control were implemented because overall human and animal health will be improved, people and animals will rest assured, knowing that their lives are no longer as much in danger.
van der Gaag, Nikki. “Pick Your Poison.” New Internationalist 323 (2000). 11 Nov. 2000
Sampat, Payal. “Global Access to Safe Water.” FDCH Congressional Testimony 12 Oct. 2000. 11 Nov. 2000
<http://ehostvgw4.epnet.com/ehost1.asp=pesticides>.
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Poe, Gregory L. “Maximizing the Environmental Benefits Per Dollar Expended: an Economic Interpretation and Review of Agricultural Environmental Benefits and Costs.” Society and Natural Resources 12.6 (1999). 11 Nov. 2000
<http://ehostvgw4.epnet.com/ehost1.asp=pesticides>.