Dr. Byerly brought out a point in his talk that is of great importance in relation to 
stored-product insect control. He stated that present population growth indicates the 
possibility of food shortages within 20 years. Therefore it seems imperative to me that 
we must learn to preserve every pound of food we can produce. The time to do that is 
now rather than wait for an emergency to develop. Even today, with current high costs, 
it is foolish to invest inallthatis required to produce a crop and then let insects destroy, 
damage, or contaminate it. 
The problems we are discussing are not limited to this country. In December 1959 
there was an excellent release from the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection 
Organization. It was a ‘‘Report of the Working Party on Crop Production Pesticides’ and 
is entitled ‘‘The Need for Chemical Control and the Steps Taken to Safeguard Public 
Health.’* I recommend it to you for reading and quote one sentence that is pertinent to 
this discussion: ‘*Up till now attention has been directed mainly to agricultural crops, 
since pesticides have chiefly been used in the field; but there is a growing awareness 
of the serious losses of stored foodstuffs due to infestation, and pesticidal treatment is 
becoming more frequent."’ 
A wide variety of chemicals is used against stored-product insects. They are applied 
as fumigants, aerosols, space contact sprays, residual sprays, or dusts. They may be 
applied near or directly onto commodities and careful consideration must be given to 
avoiding harmful residues. In stored-product insect work all components of the formula- 
tion must be considered inthis respect, not just the active ingredient. Hazardous carriers, 
solvents, and emulsifiers must be avoided. Care must also be taken to avoid any adverse 
effect of the formulation on odor, flavor, grade, or quality of the product, as well as on 
the structure and its furnishings, machinery, and processing or handling equipment. 
Pesticides serve numerous functions in protecting stored products against insects. 
They are applied in warehouses to kill in the structure itself the insects that would 
otherwise infest bulk, bagged, or packaged commodities. They are applied directly to bulk 
grain as fumigants or protectants. They are applied in transportation facilities to protect 
raw or processed, bulk or packaged commodities during transit. Raw materials held at 
processing plants for a long time must be protected with fumigants or sprays. Pesticides 
are applied in the plants to prevent infestations that would otherwise invade the product. 
The finished product is sometimes fumigated at the time of packaging to insure freedom 
from infestation. A wide variety of conditions and products is encountered in such 
establishments as flour mills, bakeries, corn mills, canneries, dehydrating plants, candy 
plants, feed mills, pickle works, and wineries. The variety and the number of conditions 
increase as the degree of processing and preparation before sale becomes greater and 
as new kinds of products continue to appear on the market. Finally, chemicals are used 
on the packages themselves to prevent insect infestation between the time the product 
leaves the plant and when it is bought by the consumer. 
You will notice that in the preceding discussion we have emphasized the protection 
of products. We must prevent insect infestations in foods and their raw materials rather 
than kill the insects. After the infestation becomes established it is too late because 
the damage has already been done. The insects have already caused destruction, loss, 
and contamination. Kill out the infestation and the dead insects are still there. The 
concept of prevention evolved slowly, especially in relation to the handling of some raw 
materials, but it is now rapidly gaining wide acceptance. 
Having considered the stored-product field on a broad basis, let us now look at some 
specific areas to see where we stand. 
GRAIN PROTECTANTS 
We will start out with grain protectants because they represent one of our uses of 
pesticides on a raw agricultural commodity soon after production of the crop. A grain 
protectant is a treatment applied throughout the mass of bulk grain as it goes into storage 
bins, to prevent insect infestation during the storage period. 
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