We’re sold the ideas of crisp red apples, weed-free lawns, pest-free gardens and other versions of perfection—so what’s not to like about all of that?
We’ve heard a lot about pesticides over the years, but because of clever marketing from corporations, it's hard to know what to believe.
It's not until recent years that we've started to discover the truths behind pesticide use. Now that we understand more about their origin, their purpose and how they ultimately affect our health and the planet’s, we might begin to think differently pesticides and the future of agriculture.
Pesticides: an origin story
Pesticides are everywhere now, but they’re not a new invention. Humans have been using versions of pesticides since 1000 BC, although, at that time, we used basic ingredients like mercury salts, sulfur and copper to combat disease and to promote bountiful harvests. The pesticides of today are much more complex.
Much like today’s governments, political figures of the past questioned how they could successfully grow enough food for increasing populations, which gave opportunity for pesticide businesses like Monsanto, BASF and Bayer to emerge. For the first time (thanks to advancements in organic chemistry), they were able to produce molecules that could be used on a large scale in order to increase harvest yields. There were initially hopeful discoveries in the pesticide world, as it truly seemed like we could decrease pests and disease while increasing yield and production.
The World Wars led to incredibly advanced research on these products when German chemist Fritz Haber discovered a method of cheaply producing large amounts of nitrogen that could be used as a fertilizer. War led him and his team to begin developing much more toxic substances like mustard gas, and his research also led to the industrial manufacturing of what would become a well-known pesticide: Zyklon B, which was first used in the gas chambers during the 1940s. Once they had no use for these weapons of war, the chemicals were redirected to agriculture in hopes of avoiding post-war hunger and to boost food production.
Pesticides quickly became part of the mainstream. From 1945 to 1985, consumption of pesticides doubled every 10 years—to the point where it became a normal part of conventional agriculture. The introduction of pesticides was done with good intentions, and it wasn’t until decades later that we started seeing their impact.
Photo by elizabeth lies on UnsplashPesticides: their effect on human and planetary health
Pesticides are everywhere—they’re in the air, water and soil. Neonicotinoid pesticides, a relatively new class of chemicals, are now used in 120 countries for crops like corn, soybeans and the majority of our fruits and vegetables. Glyphosate, a herbicide found in Roundup weed killer, is the most commercially successful and widely used herbicide (as of 2016). It’s no secret that these chemicals are found in and around most “traditionally” grown foods, and contrary to what we believed in the past, they have and continue to cause harm to populations.
It’s incredibly challenging to find concrete information about pesticides and their effect on health, mostly because their sales are still regulated by governments and influenced by corporations. However, farmers are paving the way and sharing their health issues since working closely with these chemicals. We’ve seen field workers head to toe in gloves, safety goggles, caps and jumpsuits due to the risk of exposure to the chemicals, but the direct contact with pesticides still seeps through.
Regular users of pesticides (farmers, gardeners and landscapers) are more at risk of developing Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and various forms of cancers due to pesticides’ disruption of the body’s reproductive, immune, endocrine and nervous systems. However, the everyday population is also affected by the consumption of pesticides, and according to the World Health Organization, there are more than one million serious cases of pesticide poisoning, and roughly 220,000 deaths across the world annually.
Meanwhile, there are finally studies about pesticides and their impact on soil health. The most comprehensive review ever conducted was released in 2021 in the academic journal, Frontiers in Environmental Science. In this peer-reviewed study, a hazard assessment shows that pesticides widely used in agriculture poses a grave threat to organisms needed for healthy soil, biodiversity and the fight against climate change. In the 71 percent of cases studied, pesticides kill or harm soil invertebrates like earthworms, ants, beetles and ground-nesting bees.
The study showed how pesticides pose a clear hazard to soil life and are incompatible with healthy soil. This is because it’s the life within the soil that allows it to store carbon, yet the continuous application of pesticides year after year doesn’t give soil communities time to recover, making U.S. agriculture 48 times more toxic to insect life since using these pesticides in the 1990s.
The pesticide companies continue to claim that we need their products in order to feed our growing population, but research is finally pointing in a different direction. The studies are revealing that the continued use of these toxic chemicals to grow our food is actually undermining healthy soil ecosystems that sustainable food production depends on, and that the real answer is found in building up soil life and structure.
Pesticides: a world without their use
The first step in building up soil structure is allowing it to thrive, which means eliminating pesticides that destroy the soil organisms that create healthy soil ecosystems.
Agriculture can step up and fight climate change through regenerative practices, and we’re seeing the impact of these movements today. Regenerative agriculture shifts the focus away from pesticides and recognizes the importance of healthy soils in preventing and withstanding damage from erosion, flooding and other extreme weather events. There is evidence that regenerative agriculture done on a large scale can sustainably feed our growing population, while also protecting valuable resources like soils.
Pesticides worked for a time, but this Band-Aid solution needs to be left in the past to make room for a regenerative future that can and will maintain food security for generations to come.