The cost of pesticides

Efforts to predict accurately the cost of pesticide use as well as usage reduction policies should be developed further, concluded experts at a recent meeting in Denmark. One of the largest studies so far undertaken suggests that cutting national pesticide use by up to half ‘can be obtained with limited economic consequences,’ experts heard.
    Hosted by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the meeting brought together members of the pesticide working group of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to discuss different methods of measuring the economic impacts of pesticide policies. Experts considered how to quantify costs – including external environmental and social costs – at farm, sectoral and national levels.
    A recent Danish study on the impact of the country’s pesticide reduction strategy attracted attention. It found that a total ban on pesticide use would be ‘very expensive,’ but that ‘large cuts’ of between 40-50% would not cost much provided farmers made use of latest techniques.

Environment Daily 1117, 05/12/01, www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=7153.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 54, December 2001, page 21]