Overuse of pesticides and our fight against it.

India
January 18, 2011 7:06am CST
Overuse of pesticides has led to alarming levels of harmful chemicals in our food crops. What we, the consumers can do to save ourselves from these harmful chemicals? We can pressurize the government to set up efforts to contain the overuse of pesticides. The government should seek help from consumer experts to fix a ‘Maximum Residue Limit (MRL)’ that would be at par with international standards and some specific pesticides should be banned totally. Strict vigilance should be maintained and the offenders should be punished severely. Am I right?
3 people like this
10 responses
@xinshunhe (132)
• China
18 Jan 11
facing the severe living condition,i agree with you that the government does have the initiative responsibility to solve this problem and make a comfortable living environment for his residents. Apart from the wish to the government,we would better do someting to help us nowadays. In my family, we grow some green vegetables,that we can ensure the security of the food we eat daily,particularly for the safety of the kids. and we try not to go out for eating,and rarely buy eatings from small stores.
• India
18 Jan 11
But we the city dwellers who live in small flats cann't grow their own crops.
• China
19 Jan 11
Is it convenient to get to the rural areas? Lots of people living in the urban cities would drive to the rural areas to buy, and some people would come together to carry some good vegetables,eggs,and some other daily uses from rurall areas to the city,they contribute to the city dwellers while they also make money.
• United States
18 Jan 11
I agree that pesticides are overused. I have seen farmers spraying crops with high-powered sprayers that shoot clouds of spray all over the place. They suit up in suits that look like space suits to keep from getting the pesticides on them. Neighbors to the land being sprayed either leave home during the spraying time or close up all doors and window to keep the affects from the spray down to a minimum. The question I ask myself is if this is so harmful to the farmer and the neighbors, WHY would I want to eat that spray. When all is said and done, it seems the root of the problem is unhealthy soil and genetically altered or hybrid seeds that are vulnerable to insects, also planting too much of one particular type of seed which causes a massive crop failure if that particular seed is targeted by some insect. All of these things add up to a farmer thinking pesticides are absolutely necessary. It has also been reported that the honey bee population is being killed off by insecticides also. I find that the best way to fight such a problem is to become informed by reading and doing research. In this day and age it is easier than easy to find information on almost anything. Once that has been done, the next best way to combat the problem is to NOT SPEND MONEY on crops that have been raised in such a manner. Nothing like an economic downturn to wake people up to a problem and seek change. We as consumers drive what is brought to the market by what we purchase. Each individual has a large affect on the overall way an economy is run. When government gets involved, we basically see a lot of discussion with actions that are "scratch your head" hard to believe.
• India
18 Jan 11
But how can I come to know which crop is produced in which manner?
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
21 Jan 11
I do feel that pesticides are way overused on our produce today. In fact, that is the reason that I am very interested in investing in a CSA this year for our family for all of our fresh produce. It is not only something that helps to support our local economy, it is also something that is healthier for our family than most of the things that you can buy at the supermarket. I can't afford to go organic, but I can go Kentucky Proud.
@jak2010 (1550)
• Papua New Guinea
24 Jan 11
You are obsolutely right in this regard, one way people can protest or do to minimize use of pesticide is to buy organic grown food from the super market so that will encourage organic fsrming and raise awareness on the effect of chemical in agriculture.
@aeiou78 (3445)
• Malaysia
21 Jan 11
Yes, you are right. Those harmful residual chemical on the foods can cause the food poisoning. I did experience before. I were vomited and stomach ached due to food poisoning. I believe if we are consuming those residual chemical for long term, a lot of sickness will appear later. Of course, the organic foods will be healthier to consume. But due to the cost wise, not everyone can afford to purchase them. As such, the farmers should be ethically in their products and the enforcement officers should be more straight in controlling the foods in the market.
• Indonesia
19 Jan 11
I agree with you,the government of a country should suppress the excessive amount of pesticide usage.did pesticides including material what a causing cancer?
• United States
18 Jan 11
In some places they maybe over used. I am in a farming family and did some some farming myself for a while. We never had to suit up or anything like that when we did spraying but we did make sure to wash our hands and stuff like that afterwards or if we got any on us. If you are responsiable and use some common snece you don't really need to unless you're working with some really strong stuff. As for the government getting involved, I sometimes wonder if things get worse after they get in stuff. They might go over board and say nope you can't use it at all and then we'd loose lots of crops to bugs and dieses and then the price would go up and less people would get less food. The crops I worked with weren't grown for people, it was just field corn and soybeans ,which I'm not exactly sure what they were used for.
@marguicha (214294)
• Chile
18 Jan 11
You are right and there are many ecological ways of having crops without using so many pesticides. I have also seen that there is a pressure for farmers to come out with identical and beautiful crops when some not so perfect can be healthier. The tomatoes I grow on my garden don´t have any pesticides. That means that some of the, let´s say, tomatoes will have a tiny bug that I take with the knife. But I can eat the skin with no problem and thus ingest the vitamins and minerals there.
@tkonlinevn (6105)
• Vietnam
19 Jan 11
You're right. We must fight to protect ourself life in the future. We have warned very much here but didn't have any actions to do. I hope that our government will be focus on this problem more and more.
• United States
19 Jan 11
I agree that growers use to many pesticides on crops, I own a flour mill and we only process certified organic grains. I thought this to be a niche market but as the years go by more of the bigger mills are getting into organic, Buy products that are certified organic this will insure you that the product that you are consuming does not contain pesticide mrls. Please don't let the higher price of the product turn you away, there are higher cost of producing these goods, to insure the integrity of the product