What is the Difference Between Pesticides, Insecticides and Herbicides?
Pesticides are chemicals that may be used to kill fungus, bacteria, insects, plant diseases, snails, slugs, or
weeds among others. These chemicals can work by ingestion or by touch and death may occur
immediately or over a long period of time.
Insecticides are a type of pesticide that is used to specifically target and kill insects. Some insecticides
include snail bait, ant killer, and wasp killer.
Herbicides are used to kill undesirable plants or “weeds”. Some herbicides will kill all the plants they
touch, while others are designed to target one species.
Pesticide Effects on Food Production
As the human population continues to grow, more and more crops are needed to meet this growing
demand. This has increased the use of pesticides to increase crop yield per acre. For example, many
farmers will plant a field with Soybeans and apply two doses of Roundup throughout the growing year
to remove all other plants and prepare the field for next year’s crop. The Roundup is applied twice
through the growing season to kill everything except the soybeans, which are modified to be pesticide
resistant. After the soybeans are harvested, there is little vegetative cover on the field creating potential
erosion issues for the reason that another crop can easily be planted. With this method, hundreds of
gallons of chemicals are introduced into the environment every year. All these chemicals affect wildlife,
insects, water quality and air quality. One greatly affected “good” insect are bees. Bees play a significant
role in the pollination of the foods that we eat. If the bee population was to have a significant decrease
in their population, it may have a dramatic effect on the way our food is pollinated and crop yield.
Although Roundup or similar herbicides may be a solution for farmers, it is also being linked to the
native bee population crash. In China, the native bee population is so low that farmers have to “hand”
pollinate all of their crops. Hand pollinating plants is very expensive and takes a very long time to
accomplish. Pesticides can also be found in a lot of the foods you eat such as fruits and vegetables.
These are sprayed to lessen insect damage and thus improve yield. Think about the fruits and vegetables
you have eaten from your local grocery store. Now think of the potential amount of pesticides that are
on that produce. The amount and toxicity can vary from each product and which country it is from.
That means when you eat your healthy foods, you are ingesting all of the pesticides that have absorbed
into the food.