The problem with pesticides

Our food and farming system is stuck on a chemical-reliant treadmill and we need it to stop.

Despite campaigns against glyphosate and neonicotinoids (and the increasing evidence of the danger these present), pesticides are still present in our day-to-day lives. Read on to find out more about the problem with pesticides. 

Part of a bigger problem

Despite industry claims to the contrary, pesticide use is going up. Highly toxic pesticides remain in use. And crops are being treated more frequently with a greater variety of pesticides than ever before.

Pesticides:

• seriously harm nature and wildlife
• trap farmers in a system that only helps a handful of corporations.
• can affect our endocrine system and be linked with certain cancers

Intensive pesticide use is also a crutch, holding up an already damaging industrial farming sector.

Scientists increasingly believe there is no safe lower dose for human exposure.

Pesticides and our health

We are all exposed to pesticides. Farm workers can be exposed through their day to day jobs. Those of us who live in rural areas can be exposed by drifting pesticides sprayed near our homes and schools. In urban areas we can be exposed through amenity use on weeds, lawns, parks and playgrounds. Many people use pesticides in their own gardens. And lastly, too often, pesticides end up on our plates.

Scientists increasingly believe there is no safe lower dose for human exposure.

For example, many pesticides are endocrine disruptors, they are can effect everything from the thyroid gland to fertility, even at trace amounts.

Because we’re all exposed to pesticides it is difficult to prove a cause-effect relationship, like: exposure to X amount of pesticide Y causes cancer Z.

However, long term pesticide exposure of pesticide traces has been linked to cancers, such as leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as asthma; depression and anxiety; attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the development of neurodegenerative diseases’ such as Parkinson’s disease.

Then there is a statistically increased risk to develop ‘neurodegenerative diseases’ like Parkinson’s.

And many pesticides are endocrine disruptors, they are likely to have an effect on everything from the thyroid gland to fertility.

Pesticides role in a farmland wildlife crash 

Research indicates pesticides are playing a significant part in the catastrophic farmland wildlife crash. Despite recent success with the banning of neonicotinoids, removing single pesticides in isolation is not the answer. They will simply be replaced. 

What is needed now is a farming system that moves away from this reliance on pesticides. We want the next generation of farmers to grow up without the pressure to put toxic chemicals on their fields, and the next generation of children never to eat it. It isn't enough to fight for a ban after ban. We need to break the cycle. 

Pesticide cocktail

Pesticide approvals are largely based on safety tests of individual pesticides, but farmers don’t apply just one spray on a farm – they apply many; insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and more. This devastating cocktail of pesticides could compound the already devastating effect it is having on nature and human health.

What about Neonicotinoids?

Neonicotinoids work as an insecticide by blocking specific neural pathways in insects’ central nervous systems, causing disorientation, inability to feed and death.

How does this pesticide affect bees and other wildlife? 

These insecticides are supposed to be more targeted than non-systemic pesticides. One might think that would prevent them from contaminating both the countryside and beneficial wildlife, but that’s not the case:

• Because they are systemic, these insecticides are taken up into every part of a growing crop. This includes small amounts in the pollen and nectar of flowers – where bees and other pollinators can become exposed to small doses. Whilst these aren’t usually enough to kill outright, they are enough to affect the ability of these insects to survive.
• Most of these chemicals leach out of plants and seeds into soil and water. Nearby wild plants take them up and become toxic. Despite the partial ban, this is still happening on thousands of hectares of our countryside, as cereals like wheat are still being treated.
• Even when an animal isn’t exposed directly to a neonicotinoid, they can be affected. There is evidence that many bird populations may be crashing as a result of lack of food – due to the loss of insects harmed by neonicotinoid contamination in water courses.

What’s the latest on neonicotinoids?

On the 27^th of April 2018, neonics were banned on all outdoor crops in the EU. However, in early January 2021, the UK government approved the emergency use of one type of neonicotinoid called thiamethoxam. The government has upheld this decision every year since - in 2022, 2023 and 2024. 

Should we be worried about glyphosate?

You might not know the name, but you’ll no doubt know the brands that use it. Glyphosate is a weed killer that is used in products including Roundup. And whilst the general public use it on their gardens, farmers and public bodies use it on a far larger scale. 

Glyphosate in farming 

Many farmers use glyphosate to aid in killing weeds right before crops start to grow in Spring.

Alarmingly, in addition to this, they are used right before harvesting. The aim is to dry out the crop to make them easier to harvest. This, despite the fact there is little evidence that doing so creates an advantageous situation. This has resulted in glyphosate residue appearing in many day-to-day food items including bread.

Glyphosate and Human Health 

Concerns about the dangers of glyphosate to human health have been around for years. And in 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organisation, concluded that glyphosate products have the potential to cause cancer. Since then concern has mounted that glyphosate based weedkillers may not be safe for the workers who use them or even at the levels in our food.

Chemical companies, the food industry and safety regulators claim glyphosate pose no danger to the British public. However, safety regulators often refer to unpublished industry studies that aren't publicly available and have never passed peer review or been exposed to expert critique. They also mainly look at glyphosate on its own.

In the real world, glyphosate is always mixed with other chemicals to make sure the glyphosate sticks to and penetrates the plants it’s sprayed on. Studies, like those examined by the IARC, looked at what farmers are using, and how these have the potential to harm our health even at the low doses found in our food.

In recent years, these studies, along with those which have linked glyphosate with certain forms of cancer in workers, have raised concern that glyphosate-based weed killers may not be safe after-all.