Pesticides Which Were Invented to Destroy Large Essay

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Total Length: 1337 words ( 4 double-spaced pages)

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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.

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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….....

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