Main description:

This book is a sound science report about the consequences of pesticides to nature, health and environment.

The book shares essential insights into the use of pesticides in agriculture, discusses the politics, rhetoric and profits involved, addresses the potential health and ecological risks of pesticides in our daily lives, and debates possible solutions. Does sustainable agriculture exist, and is agriculture without pesticides possible at all?

Moreover, the author gives insight into his scientific work, the set-up of the experiments, and also writes about his very own experiences with the media and press after publication of his studies.

For many years, Johann G. Zaller, an ecologist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, and his team, have been researching applied chemicals and their effects on the environment. Their findings, together with relevant literature and media reports, are presented in this book, which offers a unique resource for anyone who wants to know the nature and background of pesticides and how we come into contact with them in our daily lives.

Ever ate an apple? Read this book!

Contents:

Preface

What's the problem? Pesticides in everyday life

Agriculture in the pesticide treadmill

Pesticides are also used elsewhere

What substances are we talking about?

Loose approval and situation-elastic limits

War rhetoric sets the mood

Agroecosystems also have a social benefit

What are the consequences for nature and humans?

From "Silent Spring" to own experiments

Earthworms become lazy and have fewer offspring

Tadpoles with crippled tails

Bees and bumblebees without orientation

Birds and bats starve to death

Agroecosystems loose their self regulation

Getting used to constant pesticide applications: resistances

The pesticide boomerang is already on its way back

Various side effects on humans

Does the use of pesticides pay off at all?

Critical scientists come on the internet pillory

Wheres is the solution to the problem?

Agriculture without pesticides, is that even possible?

How should the growing world population be fed?

Food waste promotes pesticide use

Agricultural subsidies to curb use of pesticides

Politics should decide and act on the basis of facts

Epilog

References

Acknowledgements