Using nature against nature.
While no one enjoys seeing carefully nurtured crops destroyed by hordes of hungry insects, the most common way to prevent it – the use of insecticides – is causing massive ecological problems.
Some are wreaking havoc on bee populations globally, killing birds and piling onto the challenges already faced by endangered species. Thankfully, insecticides are generally only in our food at low levels, but they do harm humans who are highly exposed to them too, like the workers growing our crops.
They also destroy predatory insect populations, which just makes the problem of crop pests worse in the long term — with fewer pest enemies around to keep their numbers in check.