The Hindu Business Line : <I>The multi-layered pesticide mess! </I>

The problem of pesticide residues in Coke and Pepsi dominated the front pages of newspapers last week, despite strong competition from floods, moles in government and Iraqi oil for food. The issues connected with unacceptable levels of pesticide residues in everyday things — food-grains, milk, vegetables, fruit, and drinking water — are too multi-layered to be dealt with in sequence. Our only hope is to probe the facts and study the evidence scientifically before formulating policy. The crux of the matter is excessive use of chemical or synthetic pesticides — not banning popular brands of fizzy drinks.

Rachel Carson's famous book Silent Spring (1962) shook the world when it showed that indiscriminate spraying of crops could destroy much else besides weeds and pests — even bird life and eventually humans. Of course, as long as plants and crops are threatened by pests, the corresponding treatments are simply unavoidable. No doubt, growing populations in poorer countries will also mean continuing demand for their use.

Even Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug adds weight to this: "We must feed ourselves. To do that, we must have agricultural chemicals. Without them, the world population will starve".

Resolving the contradictions

The challenge is to resolve and contain the contradiction implied in this. Despite proven alternatives of organic farming on a large enough scale, the non-chemical natural pesticides have yet to widely promoted; they deserve better support of all those interested in the preservation and survival of the environment. Still, organic methods don't have the marketing power to back them that could match the multinational pesticide brands. Having said that, any treatment that kills or limits the pest, even if organic, is still a pesticide and can be harmful. One has to exercise caution and restraint.

One solution would be to eat or drink only those foodstuffs that have been grown organically with no pesticides at all. This way the question of residue would not arise, but the chances of this being adopted anything like universally, as with any such advice, is remote. Another solution might be to measure the extent to which the human metabolism might learn to adapt to and tolerate the effects. At their worst some chemicals are known to cause neurological damage, and others are carcinogenic.

'Poison-nutrient' ratio

There is the awkwardly named principle of an acceptable to "poison-to-nutrient" ratio advocated by those who think taking in poison with your salads and potatoes are all right but not so in the case of say, chocolates and soft drinks. Alarmingly reminiscent of Orwell's Big Brother in 1984, this implies the government's sanction for or against things we may eat and drink. Yet this is not far from what we are content to accept today. We blithely carry on allowing the use of chemical pesticides, with no restraint or even measurement of the residuals. Everything is defensible under the umbrella notion of feeding the poor of the developing nation — which really means, no holds barred.

It is an established fact however that some residues for example of DDT, are passed on from generation to generation in cows and human beings and cannot be entirely removed from the system.

Permanent genetic deterioration is indeed possible; yet, as a huge Third World market, India is one of those obvious targets for both dumping such material banned forever in the West, and a victim of ill-informed and corruptible administration - a combination that works much in favour of the multinationals, as so eloquently portrayed by John le Carre in The Constant Gardener.

S. Ramachander

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