Book reviews - Pesticides News No. 46

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Understanding risk
Generations at Risk is the result of a collaboration between public health professionals, physicians, environmental educators and policy advocates. It brings scientific information to the public in a readable form while also serving as a resource to the medical, public health, and activist communities, policy makers, and industry. 
    Part 1 outlines concepts in reproductive physiology and toxicology, and points of vulnerability in human reproduction and development. These chapters provide an important foundation for readers new to the issues. There follows a discussion of the role and limitations of science in decision making, including discussions and critiques of toxicology, epidemiology, and risk assessment. 
    Part II consists of reviews of metals, solvents and pesticides. It is very difficult to address the reproductive toxicity of all substances to which humans are potentially exposed in one book. With over 75,000 chemicals on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical inventory, the task is enormous. In many cases, the health effects of these chemicals are unstudied and unknown.
    Of less relevance to those outside the US, Part III includes a guide to the national regulatory system.
    The book succeeds admirably in providing a common language and scientific foundation that will allow activists, medical professionals, and regulators to talk to one another rather than continuing the saga of miscommunication and fragmentation that characterises the history of public health protection efforts.

Ted Schettler, Gina Solomon, Maria Valenti and Annette Huddle, Generations at risk: Reproductive health and the environment, MIT Press, Tel. (0)171 306 0603, atwiselton@HUP-MITpress.co.uk, August 1999, 417pp. Order direct from Amazon.

IPM success in the Philippines
Kasakalikasan, the local name for the Philippine Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programme, was launched by President Fidel Ramos on 3 May 1993 to train farmers and empower them to become experts in their own fields by developing their ability to make critical and informed decisions, and to make crop protection systems more productive, profitable and sustainable. It aims to make IPM the standard approach to crop husbandry and pest management in rice, maize and vegetable production in the Philippines.
    The study assessed the impact of IPM and identified areas that could improve and sustain the programme. It also sought to determine the status of Kasakalikasan’s implementation and impact of Farmer Field Schools (FFS) on farmer-participants. The majority of FFS farmers applied the IPM principles they have learned in the FFS such as the use of appropriate varieties and the practice of sound cultural management like proper land preparation, water, nutrient, insect pest and weed management.
    Results have indicated that the participatory, experimental, and discovery-based learning technique used by Kasakalikasan was effective in enhancing farmers’ ecological knowledge. Likewise, insecticide use was significantly reduced in all programmes. 

Jose Medina and Damaso Callo, Empowering Farmers: The Philippine National Integrated Pest Management Program, SEARCA College, Los Banos, Laguan, Philippines, 1999, 146pp.

The history of IPM in SE Asia
Author Jan Oudejans has reviewed the development of agriculture and pesticide use in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. These three countries show comparable traits in historical and agricultural development such as the growth of the pesticide market, and participation in international integrated pest management (IPM) initiatives. 
    The book describes pest and disease problems and their control in rice, vegetables and fruits, and several major estate crops. 
    The pesticide markets in all three countries is analysed. The overall pesticide markets of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand still remain largely unaffected by national and international IPM efforts in SE Asia. Clear impacts of the inter-country and national programmes on the sales of insecticides for use in rice is visible in Indonesia, but not in Malaysia and Thailand.
    In Malaysia, biological control of insect pests in vegetables has been intensively researched, but no evidence was found that the IPM for vegetables programme reduced pesticide sales overall.
    The author complains that, in general, the pesticide companies have taken over the IPM ideology – the typical company view sees pesticides as an indispensable means for effective pest control. 

Jan Oudejans, Studies on IPM Policy in SE Asia: Two centuries of plant protection in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, Wageningen Agricultural University Papers, Backhuys Publishers, PO Box 321, 2300 AH Leiden, the Netherlands, Fax +31 71 517 1856, backhuys@euronet.nl, 1999, 316pp.

Alternatives to pesticides
Alternatives to Pesticides in Tropical Countries presents a background to the history of pesticide use, tracing the gradual increase in both use and production. The author, AT Dudani, has written the book with particular reference to his local knowledge of India. While outlining the hazards of overuse of pesticides, the author explains the importance of international guidelines, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
    The book addresses in some detail the background to issues such as sustainable agriculture, integrated pest management and technologies for reducing the dependence on pesticides. 
The author concludes that there is no doubt societies should be moving more quickly towards ecological farming. He says we must ceaselessly evolve technologies for pesticide reduction and work for a day when these would no longer be needed. 

AT Dudani, Alternatives to pesticides in tropical countries, Vigyan Prasar, C-24, Qutab Institutional Area, ASCI Building, New Delhi-110 016, India, Fax +91 11 696 5986, vigyan@hub.nic.in, 1999, 260pp.

The risk of GM technology
The prospect of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods has become a political hot potato in the UK. Food industry executives, government advisors and biotechnologists have all been caught unaware by the strength and persistence of public concern. In such an overheated arena, how can highly polarised disputes engage in constructive debate? 
    This innovative pilot study showed how people with very different perspectives can participate constructively in discussion and regulatory appraisal. In this project, funded by the food company Unilever, twelve specialists-including government advisors, biotechnologists and representatives of public interest groups-together helped to create a map of the debate surrounding GM crops.
    In the pilot study, disagreements were prominent, as expected, but surprising areas of agreement emerged as well. Dissatisfaction with the status quo was a common area of consensus: all the participants judged conventional intensive cultivation to be performing poorly. There was broadly a positive perception of organic farming. Participants also largely agreed that a voluntary controls regime for GM crops would perform worse than regulatory approaches.

Andy Sterling and Sue Meyer, Rethinking risk, SPRU Publications Office, Mantell Building, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, Tel. +44 01273 686 785, 1999. Order direct from Amazon.

Salad sprays
Sustain, the UK-based alliance for better food and farming, has produced Salad days, another report to add to its Food Facts series. It reports on the impact of lettuce production on people and the environment. Production of indoor lettuces in the UK declined by 50% between 1988 and 1997 from 1,539 hectares to 666 ha. These lettuces have been replaced with cheaper imports, mainly from Spain. 
    Lettuce production uses high inputs of pesticide. In one study by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the amount of pesticides applied per hectare had increased by 600% between 1984 and 1994. More pesticides are applied to lettuce than any other vegetable crop, with an average 11.7 applications in 1995.
    The market for organic lettuces still outstrips the UK-grown supply of organic lettuces. With over 80% of all organic fruit and vegetables imported, there is great potential for UK farmers to fill this gap.
    The report calls on the government to increase the funds for the testing of pesticide and nitrate levels in lettuce as the current level of testing is so low. 

Salad days, Sustain, Food Facts, No. 8, 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF, Fax 0207 837 1141, 1999, 26pp.  

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No.46, December 1999, page  23]