The Global Politics of Pesticides explores the varied, and often conflicting, interests involved in the formulation of international policies on chemical pesticide manufacture and use in each of the main areas of environmental pollution, trade, development, public health, food security, biotechnology and industrial safety and explains why some aspects of pesticide use are subject to strict international guidelines whilst others are not. The book breaks new ground in objectively examining the competing viewpoints of food producers and other pesticide users, the chemical industry, health officials, traders, environmental/consumer pressure groups and the public. It also considers how international regulation can occur in spite of the fundamental differences of opinion and seemingly opposing interests held by the key actors.
Praised for its ability to kill insects effectively and cheaply and reviled as an ecological hazard, DDT continues to engender passion across the political spectrum as one of the world's most controversial chemical pesticides. In DDT and the American Century, David Kinkela chronicles the use of DDT around the world from 1941 to the present with a particular focus on the United States, which has played a critical role in encouraging the global use of the pesticide. Kinkela's study offers a unique approach to understanding both this contentious chemical and modern environmentalism in an international context.
The Global Politics of Pesticides explores the varied, and often conflicting, interests involved in the formulation of international policies on chemical pesticide manufacture and use - in each of the main areas of environmental pollution, trade, development, public health, food security, biotechnology and industrial safety - and explains why some aspects of pesticide use are subject to strict international guidelines whilst others are not. The book breaks new ground in objectively examining the competing viewpoints of food producers and other pesticide users, the chemical industry, health officials, traders, environmental/consumer pressure groups and the public. It also considers how international regulation can occur in spite of the fundamental differences of opinion and seemingly opposing interests held by the key actors.
The Global Politics of Pesticides explores the varied, and often conflicting, interests involved in the formulation of international policies on chemical pesticide manufacture and use in each of the main areas of environmental pollution, trade, development, public health, food security, biotechnology and industrial safety and explains why some aspects of pesticide use are subject to strict international guidelines whilst others are not. The book breaks new ground in objectively examining the competing viewpoints of food producers and other pesticide users, the chemical industry, health officials, traders, environmental/consumer pressure groups and the public. It also considers how international regulation can occur in spite of the fundamental differences of opinion and seemingly opposing interests held by the key actors.
In this fascinating book, Graham Matthews takes the reader through the history of the development and use of chemicals for control of pests, weeds, and vectors of disease. Prior to 1900 only a few chemicals had been employed as pesticides but in the early 1940s, as the Second World War raged, the insecticide DDT and the herbicide 2-4-D were developed. These changed everything. Since then, farmers have been using a growing list of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides to protect their crops. Their use has undoubtedly led to significant gains in agricultural production and reduction in disease transmission, but also to major problems: health concerns for both users of pesticides and the general public, the emergence of resistance in pest populations, and environmental problems. The book examines the development of legislation designed to control and restrict the use of pesticides, the emergence of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the use of biological control agents as part of policy to protect the environment and encourage the sustainable use of pesticides. Finally, the use of new technologies in pest control are discussed including the use of genetic modification, targeted pesticide application and use of drones, alongside basic requirements for IPM such as crop rotations, close seasons and adoption of plant varieties with resistance to pests and diseases.
“We are being poisoned, and this book is sounding a well-informed alarm. Read it. Get educated and then join the thousands rising up against those who care more for profit than the health of our bodies and our earth.”–Eve Ensler, New York Times bestselling author Chemical poisons have infiltrated all facets of our lives – housing, agriculture, work places, sidewalks, subways, schools, parks, even the air we breathe. More than half a century since Rachel Carson issued Silent Spring – her call-to-arms against the poisoning of our drinking water, food, animals, air, and the natural environment – The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup takes a fresh look at the politics underlying the mass use of pesticides and the challenges people around the world are making against the purveyors of poison and the governments that enable them. The scientists and activists contributing to The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup, edited by long-time Green activist Mitchel Cohen, explore not only the dangers of glyphosate – better known as “Roundup” – but the campaign resulting in glyphosate being declared as a probable cancer-causing agent. In an age where banned pesticides are simply replaced with newer and more deadly ones, and where corporations such as Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and DuPont scuttle attempts to regulate the products they manufacture, what is the effective, practical, and philosophical framework for banning glyphosate and other pesticides? The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides takes lessons from activists who have come before and offers a radical approach that is essential for defending life on this planet and creating for our kids, and for ourselves, a future worth living in.
Food Systems in an Unequal World examines regulatory risk and how it translates to and impacts farmers in Costa Rica. Ryan E. Galt shows how the food produced for domestic markets lacks regulation similar to that of export markets, creating a dangerous double standard of pesticide use.
The second edition of Dennis Averys 1995 seminal work, Saving the Planet Through Pesticides and Plastics provides the flip side to environmentalist cries of spiraling cancer rates, rising global temperatures and decreasing rainforest acreage. Thoroughly updated and re-written with new information and data, Averys controversial book shows how agricultural technology can save the planet for both people and wildlife.
Winner of the 1988 Policy Studies Organization Book Award Among the more dramatic changes brought by World War II was the widespread introduction of new synthetic chemical pesticides - products welcomed as technological answers to a whole host of agricultural problems. The dangers posed by these products were often ignored in the rush to get them onto the market. Federal policy primarily reflected the interests of those promoting the new technologies. The risks associated with pesticides, as yet ill-understood, continued to be played down during the 1950s, despite their sudden emergence as a public problem as a result of health scares and fish and wildlife deaths following massive pest eradication campaigns. These events, together with the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, spawned the environmental movement of the 1960s.Dramatic changes came in the early 1970s as environmental values permeated the institutions and dynamics of American politics. Such changes produced new priorities, and - in part - a redirection in federal policy on chemical pesticides. The National Environmental Policy Act, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, congressional reforms, and broad popular support opened opportunities for those seeking to alter pesticides policy. But by the mid-1980s, after more than a decade of conflict, that policy is in limbo, caught between powerful environmental, economic, and political forces.How did this happen?Pesticides and Politics traces the long battle over control of pesticides through an analytical framework that is at the same time historical, comparative, and theoretical. Christopher J. Bosso's account analyzes the responses to this complex problem by commercial interests, government, the media, and the public, and shows how the issue evolved over forty years of technological and political change.Bosso's research leads to a number of insights about the U.S. structure of governance. It shows how the system itself determines who gains access to decision making and who is excluded, and how conflicts are redefined as the range of interests attached to them grows. Bosso concludes that for fundamental institutional reasons, as well as political ones, federal pesticides policy lies stalled and impotent in the mid-1980s.Relying heavily on government documents, the sizable literature on environmental politics, and interviews with relevant policy actors, Pesticides and Politics will enlighten students of the public policy process, and also be useful in courses in policy making and policy analysis.
Although chemical pesticides safeguard crops and improve farm productivity, they are increasingly feared for their potentially dangerous residues and their effects on ecosystems. The Future Role of Pesticides explores the role of chemical pesticides in the decade ahead and identifies the most promising opportunities for increasing the benefits and reducing the risks of pesticide use. The committee recommends R&D, program, and policy initiatives for federal agriculture authorities and other stakeholders in the public and private sectors. This book presents clear overviews of key factors in chemical pesticide use, including: Advances in genetic engineering not only of pest-resistant crops but also of pests themselves. Problems in pesticide useâ€"concerns about the health of agricultural workers, the ability of pests to develop resistance, issues of public perception, and more. Impending shifts in agricultureâ€"globalization of the economy, biological "invasions" of organisms, rising sensitivity toward cross-border environmental issues, and other trends. With a model and working examples, this book offers guidance on how to assess various pest control strategies available to today's agriculturist.
