Pest Management

The Safe and

Responsible Use

of Pesticides

The career of farming has gone through some drastic changes in the last couple of generations.  No longer is it just a way of life, but it has become a major business; one of the largest industries in the nation today.  Technology has given us many tools to make the business of farming more efficient.  One of these tools is pesticides.

At the same time that farming has changed, so has society in general.  As our population has increased, we have increasingly used, and sometimes abused, our national resources.  Society is becoming more aware of the need to protect and preserve our envrionment.

Agriculture has been blamed to some extent for some of the abuses of our environment.  Some organizations and individuals have blamed farmers for polluting streams and ground water, using production practices that increase erosion and contaminate food supplies.  The use of agricultural chemicals has been one of the major focuses of these attacks.

Most farmers have no desire to misuse the land, which is essential to their family's livelihood.  Many farmers feel that they have a moral obligation to leave the land in better shape than when they got it.

As the use of pesticides draws more critical, public attention, and as the pesticides themselves, become more specialized and require a higher level of management, it is very important for a farmer to use these tools responsibly.  Misuse can risk endangering one's family and neighbors, and threaten the quality of the land we depend on and the water we drink.