What are Pesticides?

Pesticides are, by definition, substances that can kill. They are designed to kill things we don't want-"pests." Herbicides kill unwanted plants in areas that people want for agriculture or development. Insecticides kill insects that threaten agriculture, that pose a health threat, or that people consider to be a nuisance.

We did not always use pesticides, though. In fact, the most common pesticides are recent inventions that were practically unknown only sixty years ago. They are a product of a chemical industry that grew tremendously during World War II. Their creation has enabled some industries - especially agriculture - to experience great increases in productivity.

The biggest problem with pesticides is that they don't discriminate. Insecticides designed to kill bugs that eat fruit off of trees will also kill the birds that eat those insects. Herbicides used to clear land to build homes will also make the children who move into those homes sick. Field workers who spray pesticides onto fields are much more likely to get diseases like cancer and their children are more likely to be born with birth defects. Pesticide exposure has been shown to cause skin and lung disorders and is a suspected cause of skin, blood and brain cancers.

All pesticides can and do result in human health problems. But the most serious problems seem to be related to the use of pesticides in agriculture. Although these chemicals are used to benefit us with more and better food, they also can poison the workers who handle them and the consumers who eat them in their food. Jewish tradition has a lot to say both about agriculture and about what should happen when something done for a good reason ends up hurting someone else.

The Bible's Lessons on Agriculture

The Israelite society that created the Bible was an agricultural society that had a lot of wisdom about the relationship between human beings and the land. Here are a few quotes from the Bible that reveal some of Judaism's basic attitudes toward agriculture and the earth.

• "God the Eternal took and placed the human being in the garden of Eden, to till and to ten it." - Genesis 2:15
  
• "When you reap the harvest of your land, you will not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You will not pick up every last grape in your vineyard, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard. Leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Eternal your God." - Leviticus 19:9-10.
  
• "When you enter the land that I give you, the land shall observe a Sabbath of the Eternal. Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year the land shall have a blessing of complete rest, a Sabbath of the Eternal. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untrimmed vines. It shall be a year of complete rest for the land. The land at rest shall yield your food." - Leviticus 25:2-6
  
• "The Earth and all that fills it belong to the Eternal." - Psalms 24:1
  

Judaism's Teachings on Causing Unintentional Harm

In general, nobody uses pesticides to cause somebody harm. But when such harm is caused, there needs to be laws and other means to address the wrong. Ideally, society should have a system that helps dissuade people from activity that causes harm in the first place.

The Torah provides a system of standards to determine how such wrongs should be redressed. It promotes a system in which each person can pursue their business while respecting the welfares of others. Consider the concerns that lie behind these laws:

• "When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be soned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox is not to be punished. If, however, that ox has been in the habit of goring, and its owner, though warned, has failed to guard it, and it kills a man or a woman - the ox shall be stoned and its owner, too, put to death." - Exodus 21:28-29
  
• "When someone opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or an ass falls into it, the one responsible for the pit must make restitution, that person shall pay the price to the owner, but shall keep the dead animal." - Exodus 21:33-35
  
• "When a fire is started and spreads to the brush, so that stacked, standing or growing grain is consumed, the one who started the fire must make restitution." - Exodus 22:5
  

Applying Jewish Tradition to the Issue of Pesticides

In considering laws concerning pesticides, the government must weigh many of the values implicit in the Bible texts above. What right do harmers have to use the land as they wish? How important is it to maximize the productivity of the land? How dangerous does a way of business have to be before you forbid it? What responsibilities do people have when their businesses hurt people? Does it matter if they did not know about the risks beforehand? Do they have a responsibility to make sure that their products and activities are absolutely safe?

Consider the problem of the "Delaney Clause." The Delaney Clause is a law passed by Congress in 1958, when concern about toxic chemicals in food was just starting. The Delaney Clause states that no chemical that can cause cancer in lab animals may be present in any processed food sold in the United States. Such chemicals frequently end up in food because of pesticide spraying. The Delaney Clause, therefore, created a "zero tolerance" for cancer-causing pesticides in food.

In reality, though, cancer causing chemicals have become so pervasive in our environment - in our water, air and food - that enforcement of the Delaney Clause has been impossible. As a result, the government has ignored it. However in 1992, a federal court ruled that the government was required to follow the law and must ban any food containing even minute traces of cancer-causing chemicals, even if this would threaten the nation's food supply. Congress could change the law, but until it did, the law must be followed.

In response, Congress in 1996 debated a repeal of the Delaney Clause. Some said there should be no laws about cancer-causing chemicals in food because all the pesticides used in agriculture are already registered and, therefore, must be safe. Some said that the Delaney Clause's "zero tolerance" was the only acceptable standard for cancer-causing chemicals and it must be kept. Some said that there had to be a realistic standard for pesticides in food that could be enforced. These people called for a standard that prohibited chemical levels resulting in more than one death per million consumers.

Based on your own beliefs and on the relevant Jewish traditions, what do you believe Congress should have done?

Discussion Time-line

0:00 Blessing

0:01 Introductions - Introduce self and ask campers to tell their names, town, and a random fact

0:10 Yarn Game - Campers sit in circle on the ground. Briefly explain "ecosystems" Ask, what's at the bottom of this ecosystem? Assign role. Keep asking and assigning ecosystem roles. Use ball of yarn to draw connections. Point out the "web" of the ecosystem. Explain, ecosystems are not "steady-state". Ask what happens if bee population falls? Explain pesticides and their effect. Read passage from Silent Spring.

0:30 Pesticides - round-robin read "What are pesticides" Discuss

0:35 Bible and Ag - Explain, Judaism can teach something about relationships between people and earth. Bible written by people who lived off earth. Break into triads. Each group reads 4 passages and discuss, "What relationship exists between people and earth?". Group discussion, what does Judaism teach? What implications toward pesticides? Write principles on board.

1:00 Damages - Explain, pesticides are used for benefit, but result in harm. How to deal with that? Bible has a moral framework for damages. Three sets, each takes a passage: read passage, ask questions about what it means, why was this law created, and how would law be applied in reality? Each set tries to apply to pesticides: does it apply, in what situations, and what results does it demand? Group discussion - principles on board. How is each case different?

1:25 Delaney Clause - Round robin read "Applying Judaism Tradition" Explain central question: How much is okay? Look at list of principles, do they answer? Role play -- Congress, farmers, environmentalists, chemical manufacturers. Discuss, what should Congress have done? Tell students what happened.