Don't just let farmers carry the important task of eliminating "toxic pesticides"

The elimination of toxic pesticides is a matter for farmers, not all of them. In addition to strengthening the investigation and punishment of the forbidden varieties of pesticides, the state should also vigorously develop biological pesticides with high efficiency and low toxicity. At the same time, only by establishing and perfecting the eco-agricultural industry chain and reducing the transformation cost of agricultural production mode through special subsidies can farmers really taste the benefits of eliminating "toxic pesticides".

The third draft of the revised draft of the Food Safety Law, which was submitted to the standing Committee of the National people's Congress for deliberation yesterday, proposes that the state encourages and supports the use of pesticides with high efficiency, low toxicity and low residues, promotes the research and development and application of alternative products for highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides, and speeds up the elimination of highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides. Highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides shall not be used in vegetables, melons and fruits, tea and Chinese herbal medicines.

In the 1960s, Silent Spring promoted the awakening of social awareness of environmental protection. In this book, the author Rachel Carson describes a terrible scene-a "silent" world without birds, bees and butterflies, and the culprit is the highly toxic pesticide DDT. This book caused an uproar after its publication, and the use of DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. In recent years, there have been many food safety problems caused by the abuse of pesticides in China, and a number of toxic pesticides have been banned. At the legislative level, the clear elimination of highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides is not only the protection of public health, but also a great benefit to solve the soil pollution problem of social concern. In order to prevent Silent Spring from happening in China, it is necessary to strengthen the management of pesticide use.

However, it must also be recognized that it is not rational to fight and kill pesticides frequently, but to find a balance between ensuring the production of agricultural products and ensuring public food safety. Therefore, there is also a view in society that restricting the use of pesticides will reduce crop production, raise production costs and impose a greater burden on farmers who already have a low income. Of course, this concern is not without reason. However, in the author's view, speeding up the elimination of highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides is not only good for public health, but also not bad news for agriculture and farmers themselves. As long as there are appropriate subsidies and guidance mechanisms to absorb the transformation costs, this is an excellent opportunity to further enhance the competitiveness of the industry and increase farmers' income.

First of all, in recent years, agricultural products have been repeatedly exposed to the use of highly toxic pesticides, the blow to local farmers is often devastating, which reflects the public's sense of insecurity about pesticide abuse. For example, after the recent "problem watermelon" incident in Wanning, Hainan, some Wanning melon farmers called for investigation to the end, insisting that all Hainan melon farmers should not be given this stigma. Therefore, if a local farmer or a farmer uses toxic pesticides, it may have a serious impact on all local farmers. The use of highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides into the law is strictly prohibited, which is a kind of protection for law-abiding farmers.

Secondly, if once the Chinese people only pursued "eating well", today people have begun to pursue "eat well". The highly toxic and highly toxic pesticides used to increase output should give way to the concept of healthy and safe life. Nowadays, the unit price of the same vegetable varieties without pesticides is much higher than that of ordinary vegetables, and some farmers can fully comply with the market demand and transfer from "increasing quantity" to "improving quality". Perhaps production has decreased and labor costs such as manual bug catching have increased, but with the increase in selling prices and appropriate environmental subsidies, profit margins may also rise instead of falling. The popularity of higher-priced green vegetables shows that safe and healthy food is still scarce in the market. When consumers are willing to pay for quality, upstream production should change.

Therefore, the elimination of toxic pesticides is a matter for farmers, not all of them. In addition to strengthening the investigation and punishment of the forbidden varieties of pesticides, the state should also vigorously develop biological pesticides with high efficiency and low toxicity to find safer alternatives for agricultural production. At the same time, only by establishing and perfecting the eco-agricultural industry chain and reducing the transformation cost of agricultural production mode through special subsidies can farmers really taste the benefits of eliminating "toxic pesticides".

In the process of crop growth, when pesticides are used more, diseases and insect pests will develop "drug resistance". The same is true of agricultural production, over-reliance on pesticides, and even desperate use of highly toxic, highly toxic pesticides, will bring great security risks. Only through policy guidance and support and digesting the elimination cost of "toxic pesticides" in many ways can we avoid the emergence of "drug resistance", keep China's agricultural development away from the "silent spring", and embark on the road of environmental protection of ecological agriculture as soon as possible.