Title: Pesticides 101 | Pesticide Action Network
Headings: Pesticides are used all around us, in homes and gardens, schools, parks and agricultural fields.
Pesticides are used all around us, in homes and gardens, schools, parks and agricultural fields.
What are pesticides?
What is the “pesticide treadmill?”
Which rules govern pesticides?
Exposure & impacts

Content: carbamates, organochlorines, organophosphates (mostly developed 70 or more years ago for chemical warfare) and triazines. Newer classes include pyrethroids and neonicotinoids, synthesized to mimic nature's pest protection. For more details on specific pesticides, visit our online database at www.pesticideinfo.org. What is the “pesticide treadmill?” Also referred to as the "pesticide trap," farmers get caught on the treadmill as they are forced to use more and more — and increasingly toxic — chemicals to control insects and weeds that develop resistance to pesticides. As "superbugs" and "superweeds" develop in response to widespread and continous use of chemicals, a farmer will spend more on pesticides each year just to keep crop losses at a standard rate. The recent introduction of crops genetically engineered for use with the herbicide 2,4-D provides a clear example of the pesticide treadmill. Widespread planting of RoundUp Ready crops and the associated application of RoundUp prompted weeds to develop resistance to the product. Resistant strains of "Pigweed" for instance, reportedly now grow with such vigor in southern cotton fields that the weeds can "stop a combine in its tracks." Farmers are forced to return to use of 2,4-D — an antiquated, drift-prone chemical clearly linked to cancer and reproductive harms.