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RE: The Origin of Parkinson's Disease Is Likely Found in the Gut, Not the Brain

in #news7 years ago (edited)

As with many things, it's all a matter of concentration. Sure pesticides are not in general good for us, but neither are a vast many other things. A pesticide I would like to have on my food I eat? Of course I would prefer they be used in the minimal possible concentrations, however we must also keep in mind that pesticide use has in large part allowed us to drastically increase food production. Is my alternative to pesticide use reduced crop yields? We already struggle to feed the people on this planet. Am I okay with pesticide use under the safest possible conditions as determined by testing with the safest available compounds? Yes I am. Is it going to be on my food? Yes. Am I going to worry about eating that food? No.

There are always going to be pluses and minuses to every action we take. There is no such thing as a perfect treatment medical treatment, nor is their such thing as a perfect pesticide. Pesticides provide a necessary result and that is allowing for food production to be high while keeping cost low. Inherently I do not care about them, and were technologies developed to allow for sufficient yields in their absence, I would be all for those technologies.

There is plenty of work done to study pesticide toxicity, including a variety of methods for modeling things more globally:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27905518

Not all work is good, and indicates that certain pesticides can be harmful:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27887783

But much of this is still all a matter of concentration, and it would appear that given appropriate study we can determine amounts that allow for effective use of compounds, while not being harmful:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27913071

I maintain my statement that it is imperative to not consider these things using completely black and white terms. They are not entirely bad, but not entirely safe. Certain compounds have greater risks then others, and currently their use is necessary.

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Yeah I agree, concentration is an issue. It also becomes inevitable through bio-amplification of regular consumption. I would like society use alternative methods of growing food, that indeed, may cost more, at least at first. But overtime, perhaps that would require a radical change to how we live in general, such as including food forests and permaculture around our communities everywhere.