We would all love to think that agaves are the most untainted agricultural product given its propensity to prosper in the "wild". But now, given the size of the tequila and mezcal industry, it is clear that pesticides are being used in unprecedent quantities to keep this machinery going. In this episode we try to get the basics of how pesticides work and their consequences from a medical perspective.

Dr. Ryan Aycock is a practicing emergency physician in the Panhandle of Florida and holds faculty appointments with both Florida State University's and the University of Central Florida's Colleges of Medicine. He has presented at Tales of the Cocktail and is a frequent guest contributor to the Agave Road Trip podcast. His previous writings have won the American College of Legal Medicine's Hoffman Bioethics Writing Competition. The Florida House of Representatives named him its Doctor of the Day in 2022. An Air Force veteran, he deployed to Southwest Asia and Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as a Critical Care Air Transport Team's flight commander.