In the 1970s and the 1980s, the issue for Chinese farmers with regard to pesticides, fungicides, antibiotics, and other agricultural aids, such as prepared fertilizers, was not how to avoid them: it was whether or not the farmers could afford them. If they could be obtained, they would be used. There was too little animal manure to go around, so human waste was used as fertilizer. Production had to be increased to meet the needs of a billion people who were living on lands that had been depleted by long-term agriculture. With larger plots of individual crops, especially those that are repeatedly planted on the same land, it is almost inevitable that plant pathogens will become a problem. People who established large plots would have to face the disastrous loss of entire crops if an insect infestation or root rot occurred. Sometimes the government would send millions of peasants to collect birds that were eating seeds or insects that were eating leaves. Under such circumstances, the population did not have a chance to think about dangers of pesticides.