This way, the multinational companies circumvent U.S. regulations and continue using hazardous chemicals for food production. This fact undercuts the industry's main argument defending pesticide dumping. Yet, the entire dumping process bypasses the local population's need for food. Pesticides are, of course, considered a useful tool in combating the loss, due to pests, of an estimated 40 percent of each year's global food crop. But the record on pesticide use has been, at best, mixed.
Insects have great genetic plasticity.
They can adapt quickly to poisons and outlive them. In India and Central America, DDT was believed to eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitoes. For many years it did. But recently, malaria epidemics broke out in those areas that have aggressive DDT spraying programs, signaling that the mosquitoes have become resistant to the poison. The hazards of dumping pesticides overseas are many, but it would be inaccurate to believe they are the Third World's alone.