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For farmers, pesticides save labor and generally provide a higher yield: they can mean the difference between saving a crop and losing it to disease. Some farmers, especially those who grow produce at a smaller scale, use pesticides sparingly. For example, fruit trees are susceptible to disease in northeastern regions, especially at the blossom stage. An apple or peach grower may spray their fruit trees with a fungicide once in the spring to ensure that the fruit sets, but use no further chemicals for the rest of the season.
For many large row crop farmers, on the other hand, regular pesticide use is as much a part of farming as planting seeds. Spraying Roundup on a field of corn genetically engineered to withstand the chemical kills! the weeds without affecting the corn. In comparison to mechanically weeding hundreds or thousands of acres, using pesticides is a game-changer. Some farmers spray their wheat with a weed-killer at the end of the season to speed its drying process and prevent losses from wet weather later in the season. Farmers growing fruit or vegetables on a large scale, especially delicate varieties like strawberries, will blanket the field with pesticides to ward off any possible disease.
The carpet-bombing approach to pesticide use is a hard habit to break. Decades of using pesticides as the first and only line of defense mean that older, traditional knowledge and skills about pest and weed management have been lost, which leaves farmers out of options if and when the chemicals fail. Buying equipment and investing time and labor costs into alternative pest control methods can be restrictive for many farmers, especially those who have heavily invested in engineered seeds and pesticides.
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