Dolphin_Rape_Cave

(not op)

Neonics have a partial use ban in the UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/further-restrictions-on-neonicotinoids-agreed

Your dad is right, pretty much...it's more nuanced than that though (obviously).

Pesticides are both a kind of insurance and an investment with a good return, without them (and fertilizers) you're pretty much accepting lower yields (so less profit or food, depending the the scale of farming). For the billions out there that depend on farming for their food/livelihoods, having 15% more food for your family this season is worth spending a days wages on pesticides, and conversely trying a new biopesticide is not worth the risk of crop failure.

In terms of global food supply it's a logistics thing; food can move around the world if there's a financial incentive (business) or it's an emergency situation, but otherwise a third of the world just eats what is grown locally to them. Whether or not agrochemicals are necessary to securing food security for these people has to do with available land per capita, the climate where they are, how many trees are around, if the lands been farmed before...lots of factors.

So yeah, in terms of securing yield when farming is your business, your dad is right imo. We're at a place in agriculture where it is still quite risky to implement agrochemical-free systems; change will come when the time invested in and yield achieved with sustainable methods is equal or better to conventional agriculture.

What is the air quality issue that comes from cockroach colonies? Can you tell more about the potential health impacts?