Plant protection food crops

Cyclodienes are an important group of chlorinated pesticides. The group hep-tachlor includes insecticides such as chlordane, aldrin, dieldrin, endosulfan, and heptachlor and its epoxide. These are used for the control of a variety of plant pests in agriculture and household environments. The entry of cyclodienes to the global market has created easy management for the control of crop pests. They appeared after World War II as tools to protect food crops and control diseases from pests. In fact, humans were protected from malaria, typhus, and loss of food crops by pesticides. 

As a special service, the German authority has published reviews on residue analysis concerning new a.i. contained in plant protection since 1996, including selected physical-chemical data. Recoveries obtained in fortification experiments and LOQs for analytical methods for determination in crops, food of plant and animal origin. 

Pesticides are applied to control pests and plant diseases. Pesticides used in agriculture to protect living plants and freshly harvested crops are called plant protection chemicals. When pesticides are used to protect stored food, processed goods, public hygiene, and dead objects, they are called biocides. Pesticides are divided into subgroups named after the pest they fight (Table 11.1). Examples discussed in this book are... 

Food safety is a key issue in modern society, because we are exposed to food from birth to death. Plant protection products are often used on food crops, biocides in food factories, or animal housing. Therefore, tests are required to determine the risk of pesticide residues in the raw agricultural commodity (RAC) and the processed food products. 

Pesticide residues are the materials that remain on plants and food when a crop is treated with a pesticide. The U.S. government establishes safe residue levels, called tolerances or maximum residue levels, for each food commodity. However, the presence of pesticide residues in food has been a public concern. There has also been a concern about pesticide residues in water, air, and soil. In response to this concern, the U.S. Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996, which has had an impact on safety standards for pesticides. 

The efforts for more efficient food production to feed the increasing human population require new and efficient, envirormientally sustainable and poUinator-friendly pest control strategies in crop plant protection. Terpenoids produced by crop plants or their companion plants could be one important tool to advance to that direction. Applications that minimize the harm for the environment and risk of development of resistant pest populations are needed. The principles of terpenoid-based natural indirect herbivore defense should be assessed more thoroughly to steer plant breeding to better include these properties in future cultivars. 

Agriculture Rop protection harvest timing and storage meat, seafood, and fish products plant production pre-and post-harvest diseases Homeland security safe food supply crop ripeness preservation treatments freshness contanuna-tion spoilage cultivar selection variety characteristics plant disease diagnoses pest identification detect non-indigenous pests of food crops... 

Nothing is more important to the sustenance of life on Earth than the sustainability of the atmosphere. At the beginning of Chapter 7, it was noted that humans have a most intimate relationship with the atmosphere through the air that they breathe. If the atmosphere contains toxic pollutants, human health will be harmed. Toxic substances in the atmosphere may also harm plants and stunt the growth of food crops and forest trees. The atmosphere also plays a vital protective role for the Earth System, defined and discussed in Chapter 1, Section 1.6, especially in regulating Earth s temperature and in filtering out harmful electromagnetic radiation. 

As a result of the common use of pesticides for plant protection and animal hygiene, residues of these substances are often encountered in crops and meats. Hence it seems worthwhile to explore the influence of technological operations used in food processing on the residual amount ofpesticides in processed foods. Such investigations may give additional clues to the proper settling of maximum terminal pesticide residues in food products. 

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