It is important to recognize that pesticides are among the most thoroughly tested chemicals used by man. Each new pesticide must pass up to 120 EPA required health and environmental tests before being registered. These tests take an average of 9 years to complete at an average cost incurred of the order of $180 million per compound. Only 1 compound out of 139,000 tested will reach the market ultimately. Despite this thorough testing of pesticides and the assurances of health authorities that the food supply is safe, a large percentage of the general public still express concern and suspect about the safety of their food . The public's understanding and acceptance of the practices employed for the purpose is disappointingly low for many reasons.
14.5 Natural products as green and sustainable pesticides
Sustainability refers to living the ways by which we do not deplete the resources of the earth support …show more content…
Framework for assessment of Sustainability
Adequate pest control is meant for increasing crop yield and reduces land requirements which cannot keep pace with the growing demand of the world's population using conventional agriculture. The costs associated with the rapid development of modern pesticides include
• Environmental contamination
• Unpredicted human health consequences and
• Deleterious effects on wildlife and other non-targeted organisms in the food chain.
This has driven the opening up of the new vistas for green chemistry. Green Chemistry field in this perspective necessitates the design of new processes and methods that reduce the use and generation of toxic and hazardous substances both to human and ecology. Fig. 14.3. shows that pesticides are responsible for inflicting a range of impacts on human health due to pollution.
Fig. 14.3. Pesticides are implicated in a range of impacts on human health due to pollution
14.5.1 Natural products as a green and sustainable substitute to synthetic