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Senn1d t1_itijsgv wrote

Reply to comment by vladhed in This new farming robot uses lasers to kill 200,000 weeds per hour by GonjaNinja420

having food that is not infested by pesticides.
And species that don't go extinct because of pesticides

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[deleted] t1_itj3946 wrote

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Lord_Rapunzel t1_itk2box wrote

Herbicides still affect animal life and bioaccumulate.

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patentlyfakeid t1_itk6aie wrote

My farmer father-in-law once tried to argue that xxxxicides weren't poisons. For a moment I didn't even know how to reply. What did he think they were? Magic substances that just separated 'the bad things' from reality?

He referred to all such liquids simply as 'spray', and didn't think twice about using them. I respected his ability to make a living farming, and put all his kids through school w/o the owing the bank anything, but I'm glad he's not farming anymore.

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[deleted] t1_itkoehg wrote

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patentlyfakeid t1_itllpsw wrote

Yes, that gets repeated every time someone says the word 'poison'. Some things have clear intent, and others have otherwise unexpected effects. 'Spray', it's turning out, has no minimal dosage dosage at which it isn't harmful to something in nature. Your water does, and is in fact deadlier in it's absence more often than by it's presence.

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[deleted] t1_itls2jh wrote

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patentlyfakeid t1_itlzyli wrote

Despite having a surplus of food, we'd not have enough to feed everyone if we didn't use spray. We don't, however, have to use it as negligently and as ambivalently as we do.* I'm from a rural area, and have lived my whole life on or near farms, so I have seen just how it gets used. Have some weeds? Spray. Still there? Double the spray. (repeat ad nauseum)

Besides, at this point, it's not as though you can avoid eating things with xxxxicides in them. Every study I've seen says that 'organic' goods contain similar amounts as regularly farmed items.

* Nor should we just keep using things when we discover systemic issues. Monsanto, for example, has a huge vested interest in the continued use of roundup and their patented seeds. It's growing more and more obvious, though, that we really can't afford to.

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Javina33 t1_itivhk1 wrote

But aren’t the species suffering the same fate being zapped by lasers?

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Pitchforkin t1_itj3kgk wrote

Pesticides can drift and can enter the water table, lasers don’t do any of that.

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MDev01 t1_itjcv7c wrote

They are not just drifting. A very high percentage of every single million gallons of weed killer used ends up in our water supply. We would be better using any method but chemicals.

Chemicals seem cheap until a few decades from now when we will inevitably have to pay for the destruction of our waterways.

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