“Pesticides Are Bad Unless You Hate Everything”

Pesticides are so common these days that most of us rarely question them. They are used on our food, in our gardens, at our parks and schools and in our homes, but that wasn’t always the case. The use of synthetic pesticides in the US didn’t begin until the 1930s and only became widespread after World War II. By 1950, because pesticides were found to increase farm yield beyond pre-World War II levels, farmers began to depend more heavily on synthetic pesticides to control insects in their crops. By 1997, pesticide dependency in the US had reached such great proportions that it accounted for nearly one-third of pesticide purchases world wide, totaling nearly $12 billion and including more than 20,000 pesticides registered with the Environmental Protection Agency. Pesticide use is so common that crops grown using pesticides are referred to as “conventionally grown.” Despite this enormous expenditure, the greater cost is to the environment, and the health of animals and humans.

Pesticides Defined

So what are pesticides? RATE (Real Alternatives to Toxins in the Environment) defines pesticides as “poisons designed to kill a variety of plants and animals such as insects (insecticides), weeds (herbicides), and mold or fungus (fungicides). Pesticides include active ingredients (chemical compounds designed to kill the target organisms) and inert ingredients which may be carcinogens or toxic substances. They also include rodenticides and wood preservatives.” Pesticides are poisons that we use to control the population of organisms that vie for the same resources we do. One of the problem with poisoning these organisms is that the poison we use is less discriminate that we’d like it to be, and it often affects us as well.

The Risks of Pesticide Use

But if we wash our fruits and vegetables before we eat them, we’re safe from potential hazards related to pesticides, aren’t we? Not really. The pervasiveness of pesticides is also a problem. Only 5% of pesticides reach their target; the other 95% ends up in the water or air and can travel as far as 14 miles. Why should this worry you? Pesticides can be absorbed through the skin, inhaled, and swallowed, and risks include leukemia and other forms of cancers (lung, brain, testicular, lymphoma), increase in spontaneous abortions, decreased fertility, liver and pancreatic damage, neuropathy, disturbances to immune systems (asthma/ allergies), increases in stillbirths, and decreased sperm counts. Children are especially at risk. Those who live in homes or gardens treated with pesticides have a six and a half greater risk of leukemia than those that don’t.

There is also systemic hypocrisy related to pesticides. For example, Dursban, previously one of the most common pesticides used in households, schools, hospitals and agriculture was banned in 2000 by the USEPA due to unacceptable health risk, especially to children. Toxicology studies have found that exposures to Dursban early in life may affect the function of the nervous system later in life, with possible links to changes in normal learning and behavior. Yet, six manufacturers in the US are still allowed to produce the chemical for use on foreign crops—a double standard if ever there was one.

 Underground Resistance

Anyone who has taken the same antibiotics over a long period of time knows what happens: Eventually, they stop working. The same thing is happening with pesticides, but on a much greater scale. Today, there are more than 500 species of insects and mites that are resistant to some form of pesticides. It’s simply part of the process of natural selection, which means that pesticide use is creating hardier pests. As a result of the increasing resistance, farmers have started to apply more products, combine pesticides, increase applications, or substitute with more toxic replacements. The use of pesticides is not leading to a safer world, but one filled with greater amounts of toxicity and resistant pests, while killing beneficial organisms.

 Types of Pesticides

There are many classes of synthetic pesticides. The main classes consist of organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroids. Exposure to pesticides can cause both short term and/or long term effects on animals and humans, especially in the reproductive, endocrine, and central nervous systems.

Social and Economic Problems

 The use of synthetic pesticides is often connected to a vicious cycle of financial

dependency, leading to increasing indebtedness of farmers and immense negative effects for the economy of farm families and rural communities. As with all persons in serious debt who don’t see a way out, suicides are common. According to data from the Office of Statistics in the UK, suicide rates to are significantly higher for farmers. Peaking in 1999, farmers were more than twice as likely to commit suicide than their non-farmer counterparts. Other consequences of indebtedness are migration, loss of land and loss of culture, which are more common symptoms in the so-called “developing world.”  

A Quick Note on Fertilizer

Fairly recently, the Californian, a local newspaper based in Salinas, had a piece about properly disposing of lawn fertilizer. The fertilizer had to be taken to the Household Hazardous Waste center at the landfill. This seems pretty incredible. If synthetic fertilizers are too toxic for the landfill, then it is certainly too toxic for our lawns and the children and pets that play on them.

 So what do you do instead? Compost! You can easily start a compost bin or pile at your home. Don’t want to bother with the mess? (You really should.) Well, you can also buy organic compost at garden supply and building supply stores pretty cheaply. Lawns are really over-rated anyway. If you’re going to use water and other resources, at least grow something you can eat! Who even uses their front lawn as anything more than a status symbol.

Suggestions for Non-Toxic Home Weed Control

The following “recipes” were gathered from various gardening sites. We cannot vouch for their effectiveness.

 General

One Litre of Vinegar

1/4 Cup of Salt

2 tsp. Liquid Dish Soap
Place concoction in Garden Sprayer and use itfor driveways and cracks of pavement weeds appear.

Boiling water will kill any plant and seed it touches. Just pour it on the plant, but be careful not to splash on desirable plants.

Mix 1 tablespoon rubbing alcohol with 1 litre of water. Spray the mixture on the weeds thoroughly, but lightly. This will kill all plants, so be careful where you spray it. For tougher weeds, you may need to increase the amount of alcohol you use.

Dandelions
Minimize the number of dandelions your lawn has by not letting the flowers go to seed. Mow your lawn often to keep the flowers from maturing. Dandelions thrive in acidic, compacted soil. Check the pH of your soil with a home testing kit and adjust the pH if necessary. In gardens, use a deep organic mulch to reduce the dandelion population.

Hand dig out the plant, removing as much root as possible. Spot treat the hole with boiling water. Spread grass seed on the bare spot to prevent weeds from returning.

Quackgrass
Quackgrass thrives in compacted soil with low organic matter. Make your lawn inhospitable to the weed by aerating at least once a year and by adding organic matter such as compost to your soil. If it is a prevalent problem in your gardens, consider smothering it with a cover crop. To do this, remove all desirable plants from the problem area. Till the soil and spread buckwheat seed over the entire area. Just before the buckwheat flowers, till it under and reseed the area with buckwheat. Repeat the till and seed process before the second growth blossoms. In the fall, till the third stand of buckwheat in and replant heavily with crimson clover. The next year, allow the clover to flower and till it under. The area is now ready to plant again.

Keep pulling it out. Make sure to get all of the root as small pieces can sprout new quack grass. If mowed regularly, the quackgrass population will decline.

Chickweed
The presence of chickweed in your garden indicates frequent tillage and high fertility. Reduce the frequency with which you turn your soil and hold off on adding more organic material.

Thistles
The best way to prevent thistles is to use a heavy duty mulch around gardens. Corrugated cardboard works well. Cover the cardboard with a more decorative mulch if you are concerned about the appearance of your garden.
 

Article courtesy of Josh Gubser, former Recycling Technician, City of Monterey