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.

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.

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.