Chemical pesticides - yay or nay?

Throwback: I was talking about sustainable agriculture on the last post. So we will be discussing chemical pesticides on this post! 

So, since when pesticide joined agriculture? i dont remember spraying pesticide during harvest moon gameplay! My professor, he told me the ugly truth, that pesticide is first used during world war! (The use of synthetic pesticides in the US began in the 1930s and became widespread after World War II.) If it could kill a person, it definitely kills insects. 

 Agent Orange (Herbicide Orange) during Vietnam War. This is so sad :(

In order to maximize productivity and aesthetic of crops, commercial crops are usually sprayed with pesticides to control the pest insects. And it seems like it provides instant result, it works. However, the long run consequences are there. I shall call it the 'euphoria of controlling nature', that make us think that  we can actually own the nature! We were wrong.

Uhmmmm? Man vs nature?

We all know that the pesticides is of course related to environmental and health concerns. But there's more! Pesticides sometimes worsen the pest problem in fact. 

Why do i say so? 

Not all insects all pest. There two groups in fact, natural enemies (or we call them beneficial insects) and pest,  and some are neutral insects tho. Natural enemies are insects that keep pest population in check naturally, e.g. spider (predator), wasps (parasitoids). 

 Poor bee.

However, pesticides do not recognize them, it would wipe all of them out. Pest tend to recover population faster, and when it happens, there are no natural enemies to control them! This is called secondary pest outbreak. 'what doesnt kill you makes you stronger', it applies to insects as well. They come back with more resistance, shouting to us 'Human, your move?'. 

Silly insects, you have your resistance, we have more insecticides, we even have 'cocktail of insecticides'! This is how we built our path to doom. Guess what? They gain resistance more and more, they can even swim in the insecticides. Result of the battle? Human - 0 Insect - 1

 Cocktail - now comes with pesticide flavor D:

Thanks to our modern society that is more and more concerning the health, we all started to question on our food, are they really safe to eat? 

In many countries, they start to promote organic food. If they are to import any crops, residual pesticide are strictly monitored on very low pass line. E.g. our beloved neighbor country Singapore. One time you violate their rule, be prepared to be blacklisted. 

They do not welcome high pesticide food

Trends are always changing. Agriculture may impact the society, vice versa. Do we really able to free ourselves on reliance to pesticide? And what exactly is Integrated Pest Management (IPM)? And how are the actual roles of natural enemies?? I shall talk about this on next post. 

See you guys! ;)