Pesticides, human health, and food security.

Pesticides, human health, and food security. The worldwide population is projected to increase to 9 billion by 2050 (United Nations 2015). To accommodate this increase, food production will necessarily need to increase as well. However, new agricultural land is limited, so sustainable production and increasing productivity of existing agricultural land is an important aspect to addressing global food security (Popp et al. 2013). Food security has been described as a condition of humanity “…when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (Food and Agriculture Organization 1996). Increases in the terrestrial agricultural production of food and fish farming will be necessary to ensure adequate food availability, but this is only part of the larger concept of food security that also comprises food access, utilization, and stability (Food and Agriculture Organization 2006). Given that there is limited additional land available for agriculture and sites for fish farming coupled with increasing economic pressures to produce agricultural commodities for industrial purposes, including fiber and biofuels, strategies to increase agricultural yield will need to be used to meet the increase in food demand for the immediate future . For the near and foreseeable future, pesticides may be an important component of a comprehensive strategy to increase crop yield by preventing both pre and postharvest loss to pests.“Pesticides are substances used to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pest ranging from insects, animals and weeds to microorganisms” (Grube et al. 2011), but inadvertent exposure to pesticides may adversely affect human health. Glyphosate, an herbicide linked to cancer by California state scientists and the World Health Organization is the active ingredient in Roundup, the Monsanto weed killer that is the most heavily used pesticide ,has been found to leave residue in food thus posing health risks. Each year, more than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on American crops, primarily on “Roundup-ready” corn and soybeans genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide. But when it comes to the food we eat, the highest glyphosate levels are not found in products made with GMO corn. Increasingly, glyphosate is also sprayed just before harvest on wheat, barley, oats and beans that are not genetically engineered. Glyphosate kills the crop, drying it out so that it can be harvested sooner than if the plant were allowed to die naturally.