Environmental Ethics of Pesticide Usage in Agriculture

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Harms posed by pesticide usage in agriculture
Effect on the Environment
Effect on the Ecological Chain
Effect on People’s Health
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Pesticides are synthetic chemicals, such as insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and others, that have been widely used in agriculture since the early 70’s. They are mainly used to remove insect pests, weeds, fungi pests, and other organisms that destroy crops. In addition, pesticide use leads to the reduction of food production costs and, consequently, to lower food prices. Pesticides like insecticides are also found valuable in preventing the spread of deadly infectious diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and others. Although it is generally believed that pesticides have a negative impact on the quality of products and crops, pesticides still have a positive effect on protecting plants from pests.

Harms posed by pesticide usage in agriculture

Although pesticides have several benefits and reasons why they are so extensively used in agriculture, their usage causes a lot more problems to the soil and non-targeted populations, including living species and people. For example, pesticides are responsible for the destruction of the soil and harm to the overall ecosystem (Tudi et al., 2021). Simultaneously, they are also associated with problems with people’s health in various ways. I claim that the use of pesticides is potentially harmful not only to the environment but also to human beings. Therefore, its usage should be highly regulated and its amount should be limited. In addition to the benefits, pesticides cause great damage to the environment, the ecological chain, and human health, and therefore their use is controversial.

Effect on the Environment

The soil, water, and air resources are at a high risk of contamination from the toxins that are present in pesticides. Extensive use of pesticides may result in the decline of beneficial soil microorganisms that are responsible for soil fertility. If useful bacteria and fungi along with the harmful ones are destroyed, soil degradation and erosion are not avoidable (Tudi et al., 2021). Consequently, those lands become unsuitable for future usage. In addition, a vast majority of studies show that the waterways that are close to the land exposed to pesticides are polluted with a high concentration of toxins that are harmful to the organisms that inhabit those areas. Results demonstrate that groundwater also contains different types of pesticides and transformation products (Tudi et al., 2021). Finally, pesticides were also detected in the air, fog, rain, and snowfalls. In the areas where there was extensive use of pesticides, their concentration was even higher.

Effect on the Ecological Chain

Due to the soil, air, and water contamination, non-targeted populations that inhabit those areas also become vulnerable to pesticide intoxication. This includes fish, birds, beneficial insects, and other species. Although pesticides are used to kill harmful insect pests and fungi, beneficial insects and soil microorganisms are eliminated as a result of hazardous chemicals (Tudi et al., 2021). Birds whose main diet consists of those insects will then be removed from the ecological food chain, disrupting the natural patterns and removing important players of the prey-and-predator interactions. This disruption will, consequently, negatively affect the ecological balance and the whole of mankind.

Effect on People’s Health

People are a non-targeted population for the use of pesticides. However, the negative effect on people’s health posed by pesticide use was indicated by a wide range of studies. In particular, most of the burden was put on developing countries like India, which are the main manufacturers and users of pesticides. Production workers, sprayers, agricultural farm workers, formulators, and distributors are at a high risk of being exposed to toxic chemicals. Pesticide poisoning leads to over one million deaths annually in developing countries (Tudi et al., 2021). Pesticide compounds are able to poison tissues of every life form, both targeted and non-targeted. People involved in work with pesticides suffer from diabetes, cancer, problems with liver function, and cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases that lead to lethal consequences.

Conclusion

In conclusion, before exposing soil, water, air, and people to the extensive usage of pesticides, it is important to evaluate all the benefits and dangers associated with it. Although there are some advantages to using these hazardous chemicals in agriculture, still, they can still cause significant damage. Reducing the use of pesticides is important because they have a detrimental effect on human health, ecological chains, as well as on the environment. It is necessary to significantly reduce the use of pesticides so that people and animals do not suffer from their effects, and the ecology and all its processes are not violated.

References

Tudi, M., Ruan, H. D., Wang, L., Lyu, J., Sadler, R., Connell, D., Chu, C., & Phung, D. T. (2021). Agriculture development, pesticide application and its impact on the environment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(3), 1112. Web.

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