Dangers of synthetic pesticides and why we should ‘bee’ careful

When we think of synthetic pesticides, we commonly think of it as a necessary protection for our crops against insects, much like sunscreens, or as a nuisance that builds up inside our bodies and harms us until we pay the piper. However, according to the book, “Crop Chemo-phobia: Will Precaution Kill the Green Revolution?”,  there are so much more natural pesticides in the plant compared to the synthetic ones (About 99.9% of pesticides in a plant is, by weight, natural) that if we were to worry about something, it should be the natural pesticides. This, however, does not mean we should be using synthetic pesticides carelessly.  They are still harbingers of destruction to ecosystem and have already begun their dirty work on one of the beings that we depend on for agricultural benefits. That’s right, they are destroying the bees.

Source: imgur.com

According to the scientists, the bees are dying from a dangerous disorder called, “colony collapse disorder,” or commonly called as CCD. This disorder is developed from exposure to synthetic pesticides, which brings in other factors as a result, like parasites and fungi that would not have affected them if not for synthetic pesticides. Not only that, one of those pesticides that has been confirmed to be harmless to bees is increasing the bee’s chance of parasitic infection. Consequently, this would raise the stress level far beyond their tolerance and ultimately lead to colony collapse disorder. YouTube Preview Image What is this “colony collapse disorder” you say? It is when bees from a colony up and disappears  from their site due to the inhabitable stress in their living habitat, never to be seen again. We, as humans, depend on the bees to do most of the pollinating for countless vegetable and fruit crops. If they develop CCD from interacting with crops laced with synthetic pesticides, there will be fewer bees for the farmers to utilize and the harvest of fruits and vegetables will be severely limited.

Although synthetic pesticides may be insignificant when considering its effect on our well-being after intake, it is a serious cause and concern for the bees as it makes them vulnerable to so many stress-inducing organisms, such as parasites and fungi, and steers them towards what we now know as colony collapse disorder. While we still can, we should prevent usage of such pesticides and conserve their population so that in the long run, ours would be preserved as well.

-Jong Hwan Seo

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