• Herbicides effectively control weeds that compete with food crops and trees for essential soil nutrients, sunlight and moisture. This allows for today’s high crop yields.
• “Deny small-scale, resource-poor farmers access to...improved varieties, fertilizers and crop protection chemicals, and the world will be doomed–not from poisoning, as some say, but from starvation and social and political chaos.”-Norman Borlaug
• The number of farms peaked at 6.8 million in 1935 and has fallen to less than 2 million farms today.
• In order to survive, crops must compete successfully with 80,000 plant diseases, 30,000 weed varieties, 10,000 insect species and 1,000 species of nematodes, along with worms, rodents, wildlife and a variety of diseases and fungi.
• Without insecticides, 50 percent of cotton production could be lost.
• Without pesticides the corn borer alone would cause corn yields to drop 24 percent.
• Without the use of insecticides soybean yields could drop 26 percent due to Mexican bean beetle.
• Cotton growers lose 7 percent of their crop, worth about $238 million in income, to insects and pests, even with the use of pesticides.
• We consume about 45 micrograms (or 45 one-millionths) of man-made pesticide residues per day. There are 2,000 micrograms of natural carcinogens in a glass of cola.
• In 1997, farmers placed 27.8 million acres of their land in reserve to protect the environment and provide habitat for wildlife.
• Crop losses for several nut and fruit varieties would be $450-$550 million annually if growers were forced to use alternative products for crop protection. These losses would be passed on to consumers in the prices of their produce.
• According to the American Council on Science and Health, human exposure to chemicals consists overwhelmingly ofexposure to chemicals of natural, not man-made, origin.
• Thanks to modern agrichemical technology, we now have methods to control many of the estimated 10,000 species of harmful insects, more than 1,500 diseases, 1,800 different weeds, and about 1,500 kinds of nematodes that cause damage to crop plants.
• Each year hundreds of thousands of trees are seeded on farmland.
• Even with modern agricultural chemicals, insects, weeds and diseases destroy $20 billion worth of crops (about one-tenth of production) each year in the U.S. alone.
• The U.S. produces 49 percent of the world’s soybeans, 36 percent of the world’s corn, 19 percent of the world’s cotton and 12 percent of the wheat used in the world.
• Many ag retailers and their employees attend classes and workshops to keep their employees up-to-date on the latest regulations, technology, environmental issues and safety procedures.
• The American Academy of Family Physicians...acknowledges the improving quality of the American food supply and the major contributions of American agriculture to our patients.
• The purpose of sustainable agriculture is to protect the environment; sustain our resource bases such as soil, water and air; create economic viability for farmers; produce high-quality, reasonably priced products for consumers; and to enhance the quality of life for all.
• The risk of developing cancer from consuming all major pesticides (through minute residues in food) in a typical diet is 400 times less than the risk from eating a typical sandwich.
• The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act requires that imported foods meet the same health and safety standards as fFood For Thoughtoods grown domestically.
• Additional food to feed the doubled population expected by the year 2050 will have to come from improved technology.
Reprint permission given by AgAir Update, P.O. Box 850, Perry, GA 31069 - an international agricultural aviation publication.
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