The Pesticide Issue

Conventional farming uses a lot of toxic pesticides every year. It’s not just farmers, either. Toxic pesticides are used by groundskeepers for all of our nation’s city and municipal parks, and just the average city-dwelling home owner contributes to the problem by using pesticides on his lawn. There’s a LOT of toxic pesticides out there. Go look on the shelves at your local grocery store, hardware store, farm and garden store, or discount department store if you don’t believe me.

Have you ever read the list of ingredients on the can of spray that you use to dispatch roaches? Read it…if you can. Every day, more and more pesticides are being approved for use. It seems wise to look at the past for an indication of what the future might hold.

You’ve probably at least heard of the chemical DDT. The active compound was first discovered about 1936. By 1940 DDT was in use everywhere. It was hailed as a “miracle” pesticide. It killed all kinds of bugs on contact. It was even used during World War II to kill lice on war prisoners and on immigrants. DDT was some really good stuff, according to those who should have known. It took more than 20 years for those who should have known to figure out that DDT was deadly, all right – it was deadly to bugs, it was deadly to people, and it was deadly to the planet. DDT is no longer used today, but it WAS used for a long time with the blessings of the government.

Do you even wonder just a little bit what those who should know will discover about the chemicals that are used in pesticides today might be doing to us and to the earth? I do – I wonder, and I worry.




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