Thomas R. DeGregori, Ph.D. American Council on Science and Health Romantic notions about the environment and technology are harmful, for their implementation can lower quality of life and worsen the problems implementation was meant to solve. In recent years, the ideas espoused by some environmental and conservation groups have had adverse effects on agriculture, food supplies and human health in developing countries. They deluge us with figures on soil loss, pesticide-related deaths, and alleged failed attempts at using pesticides to reduce infestation, but their figures are often unverifiable. Thus, while certain groups claim a monopoly on the concept of sustainability, the appropriate question is not whether sustaining resources is desirable, but which purported sustainable techniques work. In agriculture the intellectual position on sustainability is too often romantic and anti-technological.
All artificial pesticides are organic.
Those who would have humankind live in harmony with nature either do not realize or cannot accept that this vague goal is unattainable. Technology is simply the tangible application of knowledge. We are the only mammals that have populated the globe without speciating. All forms of agriculture are technological, and agriculture always interferes with ecology. The state of being a resource is a relationship mediated by science and technology between humans and aspects of the environment.