For this round of research I have done the different impacts that pesticide have, as bad as peticides are for the environment they can also be very helpful and good, I will talk about this throughout my post.
I am going to start with some of the downsides of pesticides by explaing the pollution they cause. Pesticides are very harmful to farming land and have put 60% of the worldwide farming land at risk for pesticide pollution(1). Along with that 90% of the wells in the US were found to be contaminated with pesticides(1). I think this is something that should be changed because pesticide pollution can be very harmful.
The next topic I will touch on is run off and leaching which is a problem. Run off is when plants that are on a hill are sprayed with pesticides and the pesticides eventually run off of the plants and down the hill(2) which causes the spread of pesticides and pesticide pollution. Leaching is simular in the factb that it is causing pesticides to spread but instead of spreading above ground, leaching is when pesticides travel through the water in soil(2), again causing pesticide pollution.
To finish off with a good note I will go over some of the benefits of pesticides and how they can be helpful. One of the more clear benefits is how pesticdes can aid in the farming economy, if more fruits and vegetables can be grown then more fruits and vegetables can be sold and more money can be made by farmers(3). Pesticdes also help humans be more safe in some areas when consuming fruits and vegetables, certain pesticides prevent diseases from being on our food(2). The final benefit I will cover is how much fruits and vegetables we are able to eat because of pesticides, the risks of eating fruits and vegetables sprayed with pesticides outway the risk of not eating enough fruits and vegetables(3).
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_pesticides
- https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/agriculture-and-seafood/animal-and-crops/plant-health/environmental-protection-and-pesticides.pdf
- Aktar, M. W., Sengupta, D., & Chowdhury, A. (2009). Impact of pesticides use in agriculture: their benefits and hazards. Interdisciplinary toxicology, 2(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10102-009-0001-7