Environmental Networking Platform for Children and Youth by SAMSUNG E&A
Stay connected with Eco-generation :
| Share 
| 
- Home >
- Our Actions >
- Ambassador report
4
Comments
Pros and Cons of Pesticides and Eco-friendly farming in South Korea |
|---|
|
by Rock Lee | 30-09-2017 22:59
|
|
Pros and Cons of Pesticides and Eco-friendly farming in South Korea by Rock Lee | 30-09-2017 22:59 recommendations 0 recommendations Human started to farm in 100,000 BC. By farming, there are lots of advantage and it changed the life of humans. Before farming, people had to hunt animals and gather wild plants nearby. And if there was no more supplies left, they had to move to a new area. But by farming, people started to live in one place. Farming did change our lives, but farming isn't that simple. There are lots of problem during farming and the main problem is pests. Pest is an insect or an animal that attacks the food, crops that we farm. If we don't get rid of them, when you harvest them the results would be bad. There are two main groups of pest that damages the crops. Coleopteran and Lepidopteran. Coleopteran is beetles, they attack the crops by larvae and beetle. Lepidopteran is butterflies and moths, they only attack when they are larvae. So, what did we do until now to solve this pest problem? At 1948, a Swiss chemist called Paul Muller discovered a chemical compound 'DDT' and it was used in agriculture from 1950 to 1980. Until these days, farmers mostly used chemicals to get rid of pest called 'Pesticide'. So, Pesticide is a chemical to get rid of pest including insects, plants like weed. Then, what is the pros for pesticide? First, by just spraying pesticides, farmers can kill pests easily. Pests including insects, rats eat plants in their early stage, which can give a big damage to farmers. Second, pesticide is the most easiest way to get rid of pests and is easily available. Pesticides might not be good for your health, but it is the most accurate way to kill pests. Also, pesticides are available in all stores around the world which makes it easier to get it. Now, what is the cons for pesticides? First, pesticides are very unhealthy and may harm you. By pesticides, you may get skin irritation or more severe, it might affect your nervous system and also, could cause cancer. According to WHO(World Health Organization), about 3 million workers in farming, agriculture experience pesticides. Of these, about 18,000 die. Second, not only your health it affects the environment. When you use the pesticides, it kills the pest. But what about the environment surrounding it? With no reason the non-target species, air, water, soil get pollute and affected by the pesticide. This makes the water polluted and all the bad results goes to the farmer. Nowadays, people know that pesticides cause many problems, so people are using more and more environmentally friendly methods. For example, for a long time South Korean farmers used river snails and ducks instead of pesticides, and this way is also known as 'Organic Farming'. Freshwater snail, also known as river snail or mystery snail lives in freshwater and mostly eat algae. Farmers let go omnivorous snails in their land, and the snails live in the land, eating weeds and not crops. Also, after harvesting, farmers let ducks live in their land so they eat pests and weeds, and use their excreta as fertilizers. We should no longer use chemicals to ruin our mother nature. For our Earth, For our Nature.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous : A Student-Group, 'Earth Ki...
4 Comments
keep it up man
Posted 01-02-2018 21:55
good initiative by authority
Posted 01-02-2018 21:55
Hi, Rock! The way you describe the appearance of chemical pesticides in a historical view is really interesting to me. It's true that our ancestors manufactured them due to pest problems. Recent effort to utilize chemical-free methods is not as effective as existing chemical pesticides but I believe we could completely substitute them in the near future. Thanks for your report!
Posted 02-10-2017 22:37
Hi, Rock! Thank you for your report on pesticides. I liked how you introduced methods of organic farming that are used by South Korean farmers. Using the natural predators of the pests seems like a very environmentally friendly method of pest control. This gets rid of the need for chemical pesticides, which can be harmful to the surrounding ecosystems and to humans. Of course, this method will probably cost more than using chemical pesticides because the animals need to be bought and taken care of. However, I hope that people will think that these methods are worth their cost. Using such organic methods will greatly improve the environment and our health. Great work!
Posted 02-10-2017 22:20