Final paper uploading here cause I cant find your email sorry for the inconvenience

Thomas Anderson

5/1/18

Engl 102

Melissa Santos

Effects of Pesticides and Chemical Fertilizers

In modern farming practices using pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used to increase yields and prevent the destruction of crops. For these purposes pesticides and fertilizers are all very useful especially with the creation of GMOs that offer protection of the plant from the pesticides but with the benefits that they grant they also bring many disadvantages along with them. As pesticides are mostly used to kill pests most of them are toxic to humans and can have many adverse effects. Most chemical fertilizers have nitrogen in them. When nitrogen gets into the water systems it can cause health problems in the humans drinking it and cause blooms of algae in water systems they get into. With this in mind I hope I can show you the reasons why The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers have negative effects on the environment and to you yourself that make the benefits of using them seem silly.

The benefits of pesticides are very clearly seen. Using pesticides simply gets rid of pests who would eat the crops therefore removing some of the crop losing the farmer money. While the benefits of pesticides may be easy to see the downsides are much sneakier but important to know about. To use pesticides you apply them to the plants you want to protect which inevitably leaves some of it on the food when it gets to your house to eat but not just that it can also get into the ground and water which means that it gets into the water that you are drinking. That means you are ingesting these chemicals that are designed to kill things into your body. In the article “Chemical Pesticides and Human Health: The Urgent Need for a New Concept in Agriculture” stated that a recent study has “examined the possible relation between glyphosate, genetically modified crops, and health deterioration in the USA. Correlation analyses raised concerns about possible connections between glyphosate use and various health effects and diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, strokes, autism, kidney failure, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and cancer (82). Furthermore, there are concerns about the possible ability of glyphosate to cause gluten intolerance, a health problem associated with deficiencies in essential trace metals, reproductive issues, and increased risk to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (92)”.(4) This goes to show just how many health issues can be caused by taking in these dangerous chemicals into your body.

Pesticides are used to prevent pests from getting at crops or to just kill them in general but these chemicals are not selective over what they affect. They do not just target the pests but also other similar organisms to the pests a good example being bees. As of late bee populations have been disappearing at an alarming rate and while there are a number of factors that may be taking a part in this pesticides are very likely one of them. In a recent study of the effects of pesticides on honey bees it was found that they would have many bad effects depending on the specific chemicals used such as reduced food intake, increased mortality rates, higher aggression levels, and more bees walking instead of flying. These changes show clearly that the pesticides are affecting the bees negatively is leading to less bees who are very important for pollinating plants.

Chemical fertilizers are used for getting additional elements like nitrogen and phosphorus that promote faster growth of plants. In the article Dead zones spreading in World's oceans “Nitrogen is necessary to increase crop yields,” states the report, "but plants art' inefficient at taking it up, and often more fertilizers and animal wastes are added than the plants need. As a result, only a fraction of the nitrogen applied to soils actually ends up in crops; in some regions, it is less than 20 percent.” The rest is on the loose. But when we use these chemical fertilizers the nitrogen and other chemicals can run off into the water”(Dybas). While these elements are a natural part of underwater ecosystems to much of it can lead to what is called a algae bloom. What happens basically is that with the increase in nitrogen and phosphorus levels allow way more algae than usual to grow. In normal circumstances this algae is just a normal part of the environment but with a massive increase in the population the algae starts to take all of the oxygen out of the water leading to the death of many aquatic species. These areas of water that have been sucked of all of their oxygen are called dead zones. In these waters the oxygen content can drop drastically for months at a time killing anything that can not leave. There are around 146 of these dead zones throughout the world 43 of which that are within United States waters with the second largest one inside of the Gulf of Mexico. The algae bloom can also affects humans as well as algae blooms can promote the growth of harmful toxins and bacteria.

With all of these examples it is hard to see why we use these pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Between hurting animals and people and even making sections of the oceans completely uninhabitable for the species you would think there would be more out cry to stop the use of these things or at the very least calls for more responsible use of these things. But as with most things the potential profits offered by these pesticides and fertilizers take precedence over the health of ourselves and our planet. With all of these downsides it is clear that the downsides of pesticides and chemical fertilizer use that we need to change how we use them or look for ways to work around their uses in farming.

Works Cited

1.Dybas, Cheryl Lyn. "Dead Zones Spreading in World Oceans." Bioscience, vol. 55, no. 7, July 2005, pp. 552-557. EBSCOhost, login.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=17554394&site=ehost-live.

2.Government. "The Effects: Environment." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 07 Apr. 2017. Web. 04 May 2018.

3.Migdał, Paweł, et al. "The Impact of Selected Pesticides on Honey Bees." Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, vol. 27, no. 2, Mar. 2018, pp. 787-792. EBSCOhost, doi:10.15244/pjoes/74154.

4.Nicolopoulou-Stamati, Polyxeni, Sotirios Maipas, Chrysanthi Kotampasi, Panagiotis Stamatis, and Luc Hens. "Chemical Pesticides and Human Health: The Urgent Need for a New Concept in Agriculture." Advances in Pediatrics. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 July 2016. Web. 05 May 2018.

One Straw Revolution Evaluation

Betsey Walsh

Professor Santos

ENGL 102_037

09 April 2018

One Straw Revolution Evaluation

            One Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka, was the third and final book we were assigned to read this semester. It is about natural farming, eating, human beings and their relationship with it and more. While reading this book, I learned about how he viewed human beings and nature. One quote that stood out to me was “Born without knowing the reason only to close one’s eyes and depart for the infinite unknown – the human being is indeed a tragic creature” (160 Fukuoka). This quote was one example that Professor Santos put on the board one day in class and write about what you think they meant by this and if we agree or disagree about what they are talking about. For this quote, I believe that it meant that human beings are born without knowing what they will accomplish in life and type of person they would be. They do not know if they will succeed or fail, if they will amount to anything, or if they will a multimillionaire or a serial killer. Also, when he talks about when we close our eyes and depart, he is talking about death. When we die, we do not know what happens and no one will know unless they are dead. And once you are dead, you can really say anything about it. I agreed with this because you really do not know the reason why you are born and what happens once you die, and that is very sad. Fukuoka also talks about how we as human beings do not appreciate nature. For example, we are too eager to harvest the crop and eat it before it is even ready to be picked. This was a common theme in not only this book, but the other 2 books we read this semester as well: humans not appreciating nature and all it does for us.

            I would recommend this book to people who are interested in learning more about agriculture and Fukuoka’s point of view about it. I really enjoyed reading and learning more about agriculture!

One-Straw Revolution Book Review

Karine Irihose
Professor Santos
English 102
09 April 2018

                        One-Straw Revolution Book Review

                 In the One-Straw Revolution, Fukuoka Masanobu talks about food in general, and kind of focuses more on how us human beings don’t appreciate what nature is already giving to us, and try to put our hands into nature, but when we don’t really know is that it’s causing long time problems, how we can not really know and understand nature, and also focuses on how knowledge can ruins our appreciation and respect of things. The author make these points by briefly explaining his experience and some issues us people as a community have in general. I feel like the author’s goal is to get people to appreciate the beauty of nature, and what nature can do for us, without interrupting.

                  I liked the book “One-Straw Revolution” because I think the book was good, clearly written, and easy to understand. Also, Fukuoka used relatable situations that most people can relate to, which made the book interesting to read.

One Straw Revolution Book Eval

Kristina Silvia

Prof. Santos

English 102-037

9 April 2018

One Straw Revolution Book Review

One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka is a book about agriculture, farming, and all that we know about food while telling stories of Fukuoka’s own experiences as a farmer. Fukuoka is a farmer who believed in farming in the most natural way possible. He especially did not believe in the use of pesticides. He also believes in a do-nothing farming style. He believes that in order for plants and vegetables to grow, one should do nothing and let it grow on its own. Helping only so often without changing its environment. Fukuoka lays out all the information on how he farms and what we need to do to help the environment and return to a more natural type of farming throughout his whole book.

Fukuoka is a farmer himself and has done a lot of research on the topics he discusses, so the book is very trustworthy. The book is full of real-life experiences that Fukuoka experienced so one knows he is not making things up. One struggle or weakness I found was that Fukuoka is very philosophical in his writing and at times this made it hard for me to understand. Occasionally I had to reread a statement to get the full understanding of what he was trying to say. I think those who have a stronger reading comprehension abilities probably did not have as much of a hard time with this so I would consider the way he writes to be a strength for others.

I would recommend this book to anyone. I think this book is something anyone could find interesting. As someone who was not that interested in agriculture before, I think this book made me open up my mind and I became curious about all the issues going on in the food industry today. I think everyone should read this so that they could learn about natural farming and what we need to do to help.

One Straw Revolution Evaluation

Meghan Ruginski

Prof. Santos

ENGL 102-037

April 10, 2018

One Straw Revolution Evaluation

One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka is a book about agriculture and how the author is trying to keep a balance of the natural world. Masanobu Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer who claims that the best way to farm is to do absolutely nothing. He also talks about the effects of insecticides and pesticides, out of season farming, and human farming practices. He gives evidence to all of his points through his experiences, and also research that he has done.
The strengths of the books are that the author has a lot of experience in the subject, because he actually made a living off of being a farmer. Over the years he went against popular ways of farming and after awhile people started realizing that his way was better. A review from Acres USA says that “as he advocates an agriculture and a way of life based on observation, simplicity, and heightened receptiveness to nature as it is, rather than as we might want it to be. It’s easy to imagine him sitting by a field watching the plants grow, occasionally pausing to make a few marks on a piece of paper.” This proves that he basically dedicated his entire life to farming and that he wants to help other people. Through his dedication he was able to observe how we may be in for a food crisis sooner rather than later. “If we do have a food crisis it will not be caused by the insufficiency of nature’s productive power but by the extravagance of humans desire” (104). This is one point about humans that I agree with because a lot of people just take without thinking about where the food is coming from, and that can negatively impact us in the future.  

One of the weaknesses of the book is that the author tries to push his views on things that have nothing to do with farming on the reader. He believes that in this world nothing actually exists, and that human emotions are illusions. Also he states that teaching music to children is a waste of time because it distracts them from the noises in nature, which is true music. This is something that I personally disagree with because music can help children become more creative, and a lot of people find comfort in music and not in nature.

Overall I would recommend this book to really anyone, but specifically to people who are interested in reading about farming and different things involving the environment. The chapters are pretty short, but they contain enough information to where you are getting a basic understanding of the subject.

Works Cited

Fukuoka, Masanobu. The One-Straw Revolution. Rodale Press, 1978.

Walters, Chris. “REVIEW: The One-Straw Revolution - An Introduction to Natural Farming.” Acres U.S.A., Nov. 2010,

Evaluation: The One-Straw Revolution

Nicole Wojnowski

Professor Melissa Santos

ENG 102-037

9 April 2018

                                                    The One-Straw Revolution: Evaluation

            Over the past few weeks, we have read Masanobu Fukuoka’s non-fiction story, The One-Straw Revolution. After reading this book, I feel that it opened my mind to a different view of the world around us and how things work. This Japanese, translated to English, novel is about a man born in 1913 names Masanobu Fukuoka. He is a Japanese agriculturalist who shares his life story with the readers. He describes how he became a rice farmer and the lessons he learned from it. Between reading and the class discussions, I have come to learn that this man was very connected and dedicated to his agricultural practices. Not in an unnatural way either, all natural, no pesticides or chemicals, just natural ingredients. To support the idea, “…with Sowing Seeds in the Desert, Fukuoka-sensei’s teaching of natural farming continues to grow, sending deep roots down into the terrain of global restoration and food security for a hungry world.” (Frederick Kirschenmann)

Fukuoka ties in his classic cultural ways with telling the importance of the connection of natural farming because it not only effects the health of the consumer but it also effects the taste of the food. “You do not try to make food delicious, you will find that nature has made it so.” (Fukuoka 137) This means that you don’t have to do anything to food to make it yummy, it is already delectable the way it is, how mother nature created it. I would recommend this book to others, as I said before, he gives you the perspective of his point of view and also gives the reader things to think about such as if our agricultural system was different. Different views are brought into the story.

Sources Cited

“Editorial Reviews.” The One-Straw Revolution, www.onestrawrevolution.net/One_Straw_Revolution/Reviews.html.

M., Fukuoka. The One-Straw Revolution. 1978

The One-Straw Revolution review

Chris Roppolo

Professor Santos
ENGL 102-042
8 April 2018

The One-Straw Revolution Evaluation

            In class, we read our third and final book, The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. In the book, Masanobu Fukuoka talks about his “Do nothing” philosophy on farming which consists of not plowing or weeding any of the crops in his fields, he also does not use agricultural chemicals or any prepared fertilizers. When it comes to his rice fields, he did not flood them as the farmers in Asia has done for centuries while still surpassing some of the most productive farms in Japan.

            In The One-Straw Revolution, I thought that Masanobu Fukuoka did a fantastic job with explaining his principles and philosophy on agriculture. As said in a review by Kim Jordan “As humans, we like to control non-human things that can work just fine without us. Take insects, spiders, plants, and worms, all of which manage to find a balance in fields without chemicals, machinery, or fertilizer. And that balance still allows a farmer to attain a harvest equal to or greater than the average “modern” on a hillside near a small village in southern Japan.” (alimentumjournal.com). This quote really sums up the entire book while still demonstrating Fukuoka’s philosophy on agriculture. I would recommend this book to anyone whose interested in a new way of thinking when it comes to agriculture or who wants to be more environmentally friendly within their farms or gardens.