Pesticides in the environment and food significantly affect health, mood and well-being. They so extraordinarily profitable that regulation is weak and their dangers are mostly concealed. You are more or less on your own to protect yourself.
There are said to be ten times more micro-organisms than cells in the human body and millions per gram in healthy soil. Without them we would not survive. They are essential for the survival of plants and animals. Damaging them with pesticides is asking for trouble. We depend on microorganisms in the soil and in our gut for survival.
effects
Pesticides disrupt the natural balance of micro-organisms in the soil enhancing short term profit at the expense of future yields. A return to productivity or sustainability is difficult after pesticides have degraded the soil and traditional seed varieties have been displaced by genetically modified, pesticide resistant varieties controlled by pesticide companies. Especially where the genetic diversity of traditional crop varieties is lost.
Spraying for one animal (insects are the usual target) will take out or affect the rest. Even narrow spectrum pesticides kill or damage a range of species and disrupt the interdependent balance between them. Combinations of pesticides can be devastating and unpredictable.
Humans are built on the same genetic and biochemical foundations as pests so we are inevitably affected by pesticides. Symptoms of pesticide poisoning include just about anything that can go wrong including depression and psychosis,
Pesticides in food and the environment and degradation products of plastics have been linked to increases in disease rates including cancers and the disturbances of human foetal development including disturbances of sexual health, maturation and gender identity.
Pesticides account for one third of suicides worldwide. Many are farmers whose health, land and livelihood has been destroyed by pesticides.
regulation
Lobby groups of chemical companies are so powerful in industrialised countries that regulatory authorities cannot be relied on to protect health. Most third world countries particularly ones with poor or corrupt governance are unable to resist multinational pesticide companies and regulate the use of pesticides. They are profitable dumping grounds for pesticides banned in industrially advanced countries.
GM
There is no way of quantifying the risk of unintended catastrophic or irreversible health or environmental effects of GM food varieties. The leakage of dangerous gene sequences into other organisms is possible. There is little or no short term testing of most GM foods and public use is the long term test.
Some GM crops are pesticide resistant so that crops can be sprayed with pesticides. Others contain inbuilt pesticides. Already there has been ecological damage, loss of subsistence agriculture, loss of established cultivars to inferior GM strains, and harm to the health of humans and other animals.
Most strains with inbuilt pesticides taste inferior (many animals won't eat them if they have a choice) but once processed, flavoured and packaged they often merge unlabelled and undetectable into the food supply.
From the past experience of pesticide and tobacco industry lobbying in the face of scientific and public opposition we are going to learn the hard way after gigantic profits have been made – and once again too late.
treatments
At the time of writing Australian interstate cross border pest treatment ranges from harmless hot water treatment to worse and changes from time to time
Cartons from interstate are printed with an Operational Procedures (ICA) code for each treatment applied to its contents. Each ICA code number specifies the treatment and the pests for which is approved. Each State publishes a list of the ICA treatments it accepts.
alternatives
Many farmers are reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides using natural pest control methods with increased profitability and sustainability and no drop in production.