Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
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Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#2Organophosphates are like the primary insecticide used worldwide. How do you replace it? I don't see anywhere where they propose an alternative.
Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#3Organophosphates are like the primary insecticide used worldwide. How do you replace it? I don't see anywhere where they propose an alternative.
Distributed farming. If you grow all your food in one area, guess where the insects are going to go...
Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#4Organophosphates are like the primary insecticide used worldwide. How do you replace it? I don't see anywhere where they propose an alternative.
They could be replaced, but the question becomes which one would be better (or worse). Additionally there are other ways to tackle this problem. Ensure usage is not allowed near residential areas, give warning or make sure everyone dusts only on particular dates. Lots of ways to solve this. Banning things that sound bad won't help. We'll end up banning everything. The concerns are valid, raising awareness is always good, but a solid plan is needed before we change the way we do agriculture.
Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#5Organophosphates are like the primary insecticide used worldwide. How do you replace it? I don't see anywhere where they propose an alternative.
Distributed farming. If you grow all your food in one area, guess where the insects are going to go...
Farming is distributed over large areas of land called "fields", or when you have a lot of these over an even bigger area, "Ohio".
Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#6Organophosphates are like the primary insecticide used worldwide. How do you replace it? I don't see anywhere where they propose an alternative.
Organic farmers don’t use them
Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#7Organophosphates are like the primary insecticide used worldwide. How do you replace it? I don't see anywhere where they propose an alternative.
I mean, its sorta why GMOs exist. To reduce the need of pesticides that are sprayed on farms. I've always considered GMOs to be the lesser evil when compared to standard pesticide usage.
Not all produce have a insect-resistant type however. So pesticides are still needed to protect certain plants.
Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#8https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/rmpp_6t...
EPA has this little chapter on organophosphates. Seems like this class of pesticides is well known to be toxic to humans.
Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#9Re: Ban organophosphate pesticides to protect children's health, experts say
#10Organophosphates are like the primary insecticide used worldwide. How do you replace it? I don't see anywhere where they propose an alternative.
Organic farmers don’t use them
"Organic" Farmers aren't very well defined unfortunately. They do use pesticides, but "organic" ones. The overriding pattern is that "Organic" farmers use stuff that is all natural. (for some... fuzzy... definition of all natural)
But we all know that Rattlesnake venom is 100% organic and all natural. So I'm personally not sure if the distinction between "synthetic" and "organic" is very appropriate. Nature can certainly mass-produce poisons that can be detrimental to humans.
The Pesticide problem is rather simple: we want to spray a poison onto our plants that kills insects, but doesn't harm humans (or the plants). Whether you use an "organic" pesticide or "synthetic" one, the fact remains that you are consistently spraying poisons. And these poisons haven't been very well tested for long-term low-level exposure levels. Be it organic or synthetic.