While there is no denying the fact that pesticides do more harm than good. Various global reports by experts have warned of catastrophic consequences of pesticides. Today I came across an interesting though sad finding, which, I thought, is worth sharing on this platform.

 

The world's most widely used insecticide 'neonicotinoids' may cause migrating songbirds to lose their sense of direction and suffer drastic weight loss, according to a new research. It is the first direct evidence that neonicotinoids can harm songbirds and their migration, and it adds to small but growing research suggesting the pesticides may damage wildlife far beyond bees and other insects.

Farmland birds have declined drastically in North America and Europe in recent decades and pesticides have long been suspected as playing a role. The first evidence for a link came in 2014 when a study in the Netherlands found that bird populations fell most sharply in the areas where neonicotinoid pollution was highest, with starlings, tree sparrows and swallows among the most affected.

The new research, analysed the effect of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid on white-crowned sparrows that migrate from the southern US and Mexico to northern Canada in summer. The experimental study is the first to directly show harm to songbirds, extending the known impacts of neonicotinoids beyond insects.

Birds were given doses equivalent to less than a single corn seed and within hours became weak, developed stomach problems and stopped eating. They quickly lost 17-25% of their weight, depending on the dose, and were unable to identify the northward direction of their migration. Basically, these birds became lost and the birds that were not exposed to the insecticide were unaffected.

The birds recovered their weight and sense of direction when tested after 14 days. This impact of losing navigation due to pesticide is risky as we know from other studies on many different species of migratory birds that if you are delayed by even a few days getting to your breeding ground, or you are in poor condition when you arrive, you have lower reproductive success. Thus these effects are really important for population level changes.

 

This new study is special as this is not a correlation – it is actual experimental evidence. The effects were really dramatic when researchers observed the acute toxicity, despite the fact that the levels [of neonicotinoid] given to the birds were so low.

Three neonicotinoids were banned from use on flowering crops in the European Union in 2013 due to unacceptable risks to bees and other pollinators and a total outdoor ban is being considered. Canada is also considering a total ban. Neonicotinoids now pollute the environment across the world and pressure is growing to slash pesticide use, which research shows would not reduce food production on almost all farms.

Neonicotinoids are usually applied to seeds, so they can permeate the entire plant, and another new study shows that birds and other animals do eat spilled seeds. Everything from pheasant to blackbirds, house sparrows, deer, raccoons, bunnies, mice, squirrels and lots of different animals are coming to the spills. 

This is indicative of the harm neonicotinoids cause birds. There is a dire need of strong laws and regulations across the globe, to ban the use of pesticides. Also, environmental organisations and governments need to promote the awareness that pesticides are NOT THE ONLY solution and it is actually a 'myth' that they are necessary to feed the world.

 

Recently even UN denounced the 'myth' that pesticides are necessary to feed the world. The idea that pesticides are essential to feed a fast-growing global population is a myth, according to UN food and pollution experts. 

The UN report says pesticides have catastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole, including an estimated 200,000 deaths a year from acute poisoning. Its authors said: "It is time to create a global process to transition toward safer and healthier food and agricultural production."

The world's population is set to grow from 7 billion today to 9 billion in 2050. The pesticide industry argues that its products – a market worth about $50bn (£41bn) a year and growing – are vital in protecting crops and ensuring sufficient food supplies.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 'It is a myth and using more pesticides is nothing to do with getting rid of hunger.  we are able to feed 9 billion people today. Production is definitely increasing, but the problem is poverty, inequality and distribution.'

UN report further highlighted that many of the pesticides are used on commodity crops, such as palm oil and soy, not the food needed by the world's hungry people: "The corporations are not dealing with world hunger, they are dealing with more agricultural activity on large scales."

The UN report said: "While scientific research confirms the adverse effects of pesticides, proving a definitive link between exposure and human diseases or conditions or harm to the ecosystem presents a considerable challenge. This challenge has been exacerbated by a systematic denial, fuelled by the pesticide and agro-industry, of the magnitude of the damage inflicted by these chemicals, and aggressive, unethical marketing tactics."

Some developed countries have 'very strong' regulations for pesticides, such as the EU, which based their rules on the 'precautionary principle'. The EU banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which harm bees, on flowering crops in 2013, a move strongly opposed by the industry. But others, such as the US, did not use the precautionary principle.

Crop Protection Association, which represents pesticide manufacturers, of course does not agree to this. According to them, without crop protection tools, farmers could lose as much as 80% of their harvests to damaging insects, weeds and plant disease. But we all know and I hope they realise too that there are other eco-friendly ways to tackle pests and protect crops like organic pest control, intelligent techniques like crop rotation, intercropping, crop diversity and using pests to fight pests.

The report found that just 35% of developing countries had a regulatory regime for pesticides and even then enforcement was problematic. It also found examples of pesticides banned from use in one country still being produced there for export.

It recommended a move towards a global treaty to govern the use of pesticides and a move to sustainable practices including natural methods of suppressing pests and crop rotation, as well as incentivising organically produced food.

The report said: "Chronic exposure to pesticides has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, hormone disruption, developmental disorders, and sterility." It also highlighted the risk to children from pesticide contamination of food, citing 23 deaths in India in 2013 and 39 in China in 2014. Furthermore, the report said, recent Chinese government studies indicated that pesticide contamination meant farming could not continue on about 20% of arable land.

 

There is no doubt that pests infest crops and reduce yields, reducing overall agricultural production and food security. But there is a need to better deal with pests in a safer and more eco-friendlier manner. Using existing/ known methods like crop rotation, organic pest control etc and finding new methods to get rid of pests without requiring chemical inputs should become a priority.

One animal or plant species may become extinct every hour. All species are doomed to extinction, but man through worldwide development/killing animals for food/profit/using toxic chemicals such as pesticides/industrial wastes, will accelerate the extinction of plants/animals and the result will be a more hostile environment for man.

The final principle of natural farming is NO PESTICIDES. Nature is in perfect balance when left alone.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/29/common-pesticide-can-make-migrating-birds-lose-their-way-research-shows?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Green+Light+2016&utm_term=254839&subid=22244761&CMP=EMCENVEML1631

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/07/un-experts-denounce-myth-pesticides-are-necessary-to-feed-the-world