the.com/pesticides
chemistry's answer to 'i want food, but not sharing it with anything else.'
means substances designed to kill or repel organisms that damage crops, from insects and weeds to fungi and rodents.
from from latin pestis (plague) and caedere (to kill) — humans have been poisoning threats to their harvests since ancient sumerians dusted crops with sulfur around 2500 bce.
biggest categoryherbicides outsell insecticides and fungicides combined
dose makes poisontable salt and caffeine are technically pesticides too
silent springrachel carson's 1962 book sparked the modern environmental movement
resistance arms raceinsects evolve immunity, so chemists keep inventing new ones