Pesticides often get a bad rap in agriculture. Critics of farming will say that farmers over-apply pesticides, and that pesticides pollute the environment and cause negative impacts on human health. “Pesticides” is the overarching term for herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and other natural or synthetic chemicals that are used to protect crops against pests and disease.
Pesticides have the distinct benefit of solving problems. It can be detrimental to farmers if their crop is affected by insects or disease, so using pesticides can solve this problem. Let’s take weeds as an example. In a field, crops that we want to harvest need to compete with everything else growing there. If there are a lot of weeds growing, the crop isn’t going to do very well. Using an herbicide (which kills weeds) will increase the yield of the crop growing there, which means the field is more efficient, grows more food to feed people, and is more profitable for the farmer.
Synthetic pesticides go through an extremely strict regulatory process before they can be sold. In the United States, they are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which also helps the U.S. Department of Agriculture implement policies for claims made by registered organic pesticide products. Developing a pesticide to be sold can take years. The EPA reviews any risks the pesticide could pose to humans, animals, or the environment, while also regulating pesticide labels.
You can feel confident that any pesticide that is sold in the U.S. has been scientifically proven to be safe when it’s used according to the label.
And what about those allegations that farmers over-apply pesticide products? While sometimes farmers can over-apply pesticides, it isn’t a normal thing. It can happen on farms that tend to use older or less efficient methods of applying pesticides. The average farm uses current, scientific methods to apply pesticides, complete with GPS-driven application systems.
All pesticides are highly regulated and come with strict instructions on how to handle and apply them. Pesticides are safest and most effective when you follow the label. While it might seem like they would work better the more you use, that is definitely not true. Using too much of a herbicide can have huge negative impacts on the crop you’re trying to protect (same for all pesticides).
Following the label is a crucial part of applying pesticides.
Pesticides are also expensive. For example, in Illinois, pesticide costs were at $32 per acre in 2000, which increased to $128 per acre in 2022, and costs are expected to rise to $140 per acre in 2024. Of course prices can vary greatly depending on what you’re using, your location, and more. The average farm in the U.S. has 446 acres but imagine having a 2,000-acre corn/soybean/wheat operation — pesticide costs add up very quickly.
Not only will using extra pesticides not help the crops, it would be really costly to add more than you need to. Farmers have no incentive to over apply.
Pesticide residues are another concern that pops up. The trace pesticides left in treated products or crops are called “residues.” A maximum residue level is the highest level of a pesticide residue legally tolerated in a food.
While pesticide residues may be present in trace amounts on some produce, regulatory bodies like the EPA enforce strict limits to ensure consumer safety. The residues found on our food are well below the levels that could pose health risks. Produce tends to have other residue, like dirt and debris on it, so washing your produce is always a good idea.
To get a better idea of how safe pesticide residues are, let’s look at glyphosate, a widely used herbicide. For this example, we’re looking at glyphosate-treated wheat. The amount of glyphosate on harvested wheat after a pre-harvest treatment (which is just 3 percent of U.S. wheat) has repeatedly tested well below the approved maximum level. If there was one part per billion of a herbicide residue in a one pound loaf of bread, a person weighing 150 pounds would have to eat 36,000 loaves in a day, drink over 50,000 bottles of beer, or eat 450,000 standard 1.5-ounce servings of oatmeal per day to surpass the EPA’s acceptable daily intake.
It obviously isn’t possible for a person to consume this much food, so you definitely don’t need to worry about pesticide residues in food.
There is the potential for pesticides to negatively impact human health and pollute the environment, but only if pesticides aren’t used properly. Following guidelines found on the label ensures that people and the environment are kept safe. Pesticides play such an important role in agriculture that we would have big problems without them.
Globally, about one-third of agricultural products are produced depending on the application of pesticides. Without pesticides, there would be a 78 percent loss of fruit production, a 54 percent loss of vegetable production, and a 32 percent loss of cereal production around the world.
Pesticides play an important role in increasing yields, decreasing diseases, managing insects and pests, and more.
Michelle Miller, the Farm Babe, is a farmer, public speaker, and writer who has worked for years with row crops, beef cattle, and sheep. She believes education is key in bridging the gap between farmers and consumers.
