Issues associated with pest control.

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 Lisanka Trinidad (1650)

Issues associated with pest control

 Pesticide use is a significant global issue today because almost three million tons of pesticides are currently used worldwide, and wherever there is farming, there is pesticide use. Pesticides, which include bactericides, baits, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, lures, rodenticides, and repellents, are any substances or mixtures of substances used to destroy, suppress or alter the life cycle of any pest. They work by physically, chemically or biologically interfering with a pest’s metabolism or normal behavior. Pesticides also have an extensive history with the use of first-generation pesticides, derived from minerals and plants, dating back to 500 BC when sulfur was used to control pests. Second-generation pesticides, developed in laboratories, initiated from the creation of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane i.e. DDT. Helping to prevent malaria, it quickly became the world’s most popular pesticide. Entomologist Paul Mueller, its creator, even won a Nobel Prize for its discovery in 1948. Although some agricultural experts oppose implementation of alternative methods of pest control because food production will sharply decrease, alternative means of controlling pests should be implemented because food production will be maintained, drinking water safety will be improved, and overall human and animal health will be improved. As research shows, some agricultural experts oppose implementation of alternative methods of pest control because food production will sharply decrease.

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   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 ...

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