Science of Pesticide

Good afternoon to Mdm Zamimah and my beloved friends, today I am going to talk about The
Science of Pesticide. In 1845, Irelands vast potato fields were struck by an invasive fungal disease. The
effect was devastating as one million people died of famine and a million more were forced to leave
Ireland. Nowadays, we avoid such agricultural catastrophes with the help of pesticide. The Food and
Agricultural Organization has defined pesticide as any substance or mixture of substances intended for
preventing, destroying, or controlling any pest, including vectors of human or animal disease,
unwanted species of plants or animals.

As our population have grown, a large quantity of food supply are needed to sustain the human
needs. But its also left out food vulnerable to extensive attack by pests. In turn, were have become
more dependent on pesticides. We annually shower over 5 billion pound of pesticides across the Earth
to control this unwanted visitors.

Back in before Science and Technology exists, historian suggest that humans actively burn their
crop after harvest to rid the pests. Later, as large-scale farming spread, we began sprinkling wide variety
of chemicals on our crop such as arsenic, lead and copper. But these were very toxic to human as well.
So demand of safer pesticide increased for usage in grander scale. In 1948, a swiss chemist named Paul
Hermann Muller was awarded for nobel prize on discovering DDT.Until the 1950s, DDT are less effective
towards insects as they become more resistant to it. Worse, the chemical also seems to have effect on
bird population, poisoned water sources and was eventually found to cause long-term health problems
in humans. By 1972, DDT has been banned in the US and other part of the country. Since then, chemist
have been searching for alternatives and yet they meet up with same problem. Moreover, some bugs
like bees also caught in the crossfire which they are vital for pollinating other plants.

So why do we still continue using pesticides considering all these risk? Although they imperfect,
they currently our best bet against major agricultural disasters. Scientist and chemist are still searching
for better alternative pest control strategies.