Glyphosate often gets all the attention when we talk about pesticides. It’s the only product most people outside of farming know by name, and unsurprisingly it’s also the most widely used in the world. But while the debate around glyphosate continues, we may be overlooking a much more important discussion: the use of insecticides.

Insecticides are in fact the most harmful group of pesticides for humans, animals, and the environment and here regenerative agriculture can be part of the solution.

Regenerative agriculture enables farming without insecticides

A lesser-known but significant advantage of farming according to regenerative principles is that you can reduce, and even completely eliminate, the use of insecticides. Most farmers who follow regenerative practices typically stop using insecticides altogether after just 5 years, which is the time it takes for food chains and natural systems to recover.

This is due to the principles of regenerative agriculture: minimizing soil disturbance, maintaining diverse crop rotations, and using cover crops on all fields. These principles help strengthen the field’s own ecosystem, which provides several advantages when it comes to pest control:

• Increased biodiversity: More plant species, living roots year-round, and flowering cover crops create habitats and food sources for beneficial organisms such as spiders, ground beetles, hoverflies, and other predatory insects. Better conditions for insects also often mean more bird species, which can further help reduce pest pressure.
• Fewer severe outbreaks: With more natural enemies in the field, pest attacks become rarer and less severe.
• More resilient crops: A healthier soil environment and ecosystem lead to crops that are more resilient and less vulnerable to stress and pest attacks.
• A more robust ecosystem: When farming systems avoid disturbances such as mechanical soil tillage, they resemble natural systems more closely. Every time soil is turned with a plough, the habitat for soil-dwelling insects is destroyed, forcing them to reestablish each year. By contrast, fields with living roots, stubble, or cover crops provide a stable year-round habitat.

Pesticide impact: Insecticides rank highest

In Denmark, the impact of pesticides on health and the environment is measured partly by a product’s Pesticide Load Indicator (PLI). Insecticides typically have much higher PLI values than either herbicides or fungicides.

For example, the pyrethroid insecticides Mavrik (PLI: 2.8 B/l) and Lamdex (PLI: 2.9) both have significantly higher PLI scores than glyphosate (PLI: 0.1–0.3 B/l). This is partly due to their effects on the nervous system and their broad-spectrum impact on insects.

Small beneficials are most vulnerable

When spraying against pests such as aphids, farmers often use pyrethroids, which are synthetic neurotoxins. They are effective against target insects, but they also kill many beneficials that would otherwise support us in the field.

Parasitic wasps, ladybird larvae, and predatory insects are hit especially hard. The insecticides are typically applied at doses too low to directly harm larger organisms such as birds or mammals, but they do wipe out the useful micro-predators that can naturally control pests. This creates a vicious cycle where we become increasingly dependent on chemical control.

What is more dangerous?

Glyphosate and other herbicides work by blocking a specific mechanism in plants that doesn’t exist in animals or humans. This makes it possible to target weeds effectively without directly affecting other life forms.

Insecticides, on the other hand, act on insect nervous systems, which closely resemble those of mammals, birds, and humans.

This doesn’t mean the products are applied in doses dangerous to humans. But it does mean their biological mode of action makes them more problematic for surrounding life, especially the beneficial small organisms we actually want more of in our fields.

Get started with regenerative methods and skip the insecticides

We already have a system that can thrive without the use of insecticides, and this, we believe, deserves far more attention than it currently receives. Agriculture cannot do without glyphosate tomorrow, but we actually do have the opportunity to phase out insecticides once we regenerate the food chain on the field surface.

Through regenerative farming methods, we can grow in a more sustainable way, both for the environment and for our time. There are many advantages to converting to regenerative farming, and if you are interested, you can read more about how to get started HERE or about other benefits of regenerative agriculture HERE.