THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! 17% 1 Vote
Pesticides are indiscriminante killers....they kill the good bugs along with the bad ones.
They pollute our waterways, and kill fish.
They poison birds who eat insects sprayed with pesticides.
The average Amercian purchasing at the grocery store has no idea that their onions may have had more than 12 applications of pesticides before they were havested, and their apples more than 9 (just to name a couple of them). Nor do they have the slightest idea that pesticides are sprayed on hay crops which are then fed to the cattle who%26#039;s flesh we eat, and who%26#039;s milk we drink....pesticides become concintrated in their bodies.
Pesticides are oil based. This keeps American farms dependant on foreign oil. It also deposits even more salts into the soil of the farmground....this eventually makes the soil unable to grow crops.
Pesticides destroy the natural bacterial life of the soil. Without the bacterial life, life as we know it on earth would cease to be.
Pesticides kill honeybees. Pesticides taint the honey collected from bee hives also. My neighbor who keeps bees on his property, looses at least two hives every year, the day after the crop dusting airplanes come and spray the wheat field behind our property.
Because insects adapt, millions of tons more insecticides are applied every year, and every year they kill fewer and fewer insects.
If you are a farmer who uses pesticides, it means your farm is NOT family friendly. You cannot take your child out into the field while spraying those toxins. If you cannot include your child in your farming practices at every age of the child, it is highly unlikely they will ever develop a desire to take over the farm when they become adults. That will mean one less farmer feeding Americans, less biodiversity to the Nations food crops, and therefor less security in the Nations food crops. As our Nation becomes more and more dependant on food from other countries our nation is weakend, and more open to attack.
Pesticides adversly affect the elderly, the very young, and those ill with asthma. Emergency room visits for breathing problems shoot up when-ever there are a lot of farmers applying pesticides.
Pesticides contaminate our drinking water, making well water on farms unfit to drink.
Pesticides cause cancer. I%26#039;m in the heartland of potato country. I cannot think of a single farming family around here where at least one person has not died of cancer. Some have as many as five family members they have lost to cancer. Most of these people are dying before they are 50.
I could go on, and list some more things, but I think that%26#039;s enough for now.
~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years 33% 2 Votes