Access to bank loans and crop insurance is often tied to the use of pesticides. Most farmers would be willing to stop spraying if safe alternatives, with the positive characteristics of pesticides, were available. Pesticides do not solve the causes of pest problems. This is why once we start using them we are likely to become dependent on them. In contrast, an approach based on changes in farm management, which does have the potential to deal with causes, is likely to be permanent.
Pesticides have a number of inherent problems.
They are economic or nuisance entities and chemicals cannot discriminate on the basis of these criteria. The fact that some chemicals are less toxic than others to certain beneficial organisms, such as bees, is not evidence of specificity because the same chemicals may be more toxic to certain other beneficial groups, such as earthworms. The increasing incidence of allergy to pesticides in humans is particularly significant. During this time, they will be subject to dispersal by wind and water and to concentration up the food chain. The problem is that most of these negative aspects of pesticides are ignored when conducting cost-benefit analyses.