Craig D. Osteen

Economic and policy issues of U.S. agricultural pesticide use trends

BACKGROUND This paper discusses U.S. agricultural pesticide use trends from 1964 to 2010 based on estimates developed from USDA surveys, and the influence of economic factors, agricultural policy, and pesticide regulation on aggregate quantities and mix of pesticides used. RESULTS Synthetic organic pesticide use grew dramatically from the 1960s to the early 1980s, as farmers treated more and more acreage. Use then stabilized, with herbicides applied to about 95% of corn, cotton, and soybean acres, annually. Subsequently, major factors affecting trends were: (1) changes in crop acreage and other economic factors, (2) use of new pesticides that reduced per-acre application rates and/or met more rigorous health and environmental standards, and (3) adoption of genetically engineered insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant crops. CONCLUSION The use of pesticides and other control practices responded to economic factors such as input and output markets and agricultural policies. Changing societal values toward pesticide risks and benefits profoundly affected pesticide policy, influencing the pesticides available for use, but only indirectly affecting aggregate quantities used. While the current pesticide regulatory process might have economic inefficiencies, it might be consistent with policy preferences held by much of the public-to reduce pesticide hazards rather than minimize regulatory costs.

Economic Thresholds Under Uncertainty With Application To Corn Nematode Management

An economic threshold of agricultural pest management is derived. Results provide a method for researchers to use in making improved pest control recommendations to farmers without farm level decision-making. An empirical illustration for lesion nematode management in irrigated corn is given and directions for further research are indicated.

Prioritizing Invasive Species Threats Under Uncertainty

Prioritizing exotic or invasive pest threats in terms of agricultural, environmental, or human health damages is an important resource allocation issue for programs charged with preventing or responding to the entry of such organisms. Under extreme uncertainty, program managers may decide to research the severity of threats, develop prevention or control actions, and estimate cost-effectiveness in order to provide better information and more options when making decisions to choose strategies for specific pests. We examine decision rules based on the minimax and relative cost criteria in order to express a cautious approach for decisions regarding severe, irreversible consequences, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these rules, examine the roles of simple rules and sophisticated analyses in decision making, and apply a simple rule to develop a list of priority plant pests.

Pesticide Use Trends and Issues in the United States

Pesticides have been used in U.S. agriculture since the late 1800s, but their use grew dramatically from the late 1940s to the early 1980s and then stabilized. The development and growing use of synthetic organic pesticides have been an integral part of a technological revolution in U.S. agriculture that increased productivity by 2.2 times between 1947 and 1988 (USDA, 1990). Growth in pesticide use has created many controversies about potential effects of pesticides on food safety, groundwater quality, worker safety, and wildlife mortality. The controversies reflect two major ideas: (1) using more pesticides is not necessarily a panacea for pest control, and (2) undesirable health or environmental effects of using some pesticides may outweigh their production benefits. Today, many people fear the risks of unknown or poorly understood hazards and are impatient with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) slow and deliberate resolution of pesticide controversies. There are also people arguing for a policy of limiting or reducing the overall level of pesticide use, which is a different approach than restricting or banning individual pesticides.

Pesticide regulatory decisions: Production efficiency, equity, and interdependence

EPA examines the benefits and risks of an agricultural pesticides use when deciding whether or not to cancel its registration, but often neglects two effects which could change the decision: (1) the distributional effects on farmers using and not using the pesticide, and (2) the interdependence among regulatory decisions. This article examines the economic implications of banning several corn and soybean pesticides, highlighting these two concerns. Generally, banning one pesticide could have little effect, but banning all pesticides for a pest problem could have substantial effects. However, some pesticide users could suffer significant losses even though the aggregate effects are small.

Pesticide Use in U.S. Agriculture: 21 Selected Crops, 1960-2008

Pesticide use has changed considerably over the past five decades. Rapid growth characterized the first 20 years, ending in 1981. The total quantity of pesticides applied to the 21 crops analyzed grew from 196 million pounds of pesticide active ingredients in 1960 to 632 million pounds in 1981. Improvements in the types and modes of action of active ingredients applied along with small annual fluctuations resulted in a slight downward trend in pesticide use to 516 million pounds in 2008. These changes were driven by economic factors that determined crop and input prices and were influenced by pest pressures, environmental and weather conditions, crop acreages, agricultural practices (including adoption of genetically engineered crops), access to land-grant extension personnel and crop consultants, the cost-effectiveness of pesticides and other practices in protecting crop yields and quality, technological innovations in pest management systems/practices, and environmental and health regulations. Emerging pest management policy issues include the development of glyphosate-resistant weed populations associated with the large increase in glyphosate use since the late 1990s, the development of Bt-resistant western corn rootworm in some areas, and the arrival of invasive or exotic pest species,such as soybean aphid and soybean rust, which can influence pesticide use patterns and the development of Integrated Pest Management programs.

Pesticide Regulation Issues: Living with the Delaney Clause

Pesticide use is regulated within a complex legal framework that includes the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; and other environmental laws. The framework includes risk-benefit rules for some decisions that permit full consideration of comparative performance, cost, and risks of a pesticide and its alternatives before decisions to permit or ban uses. The framework also includes risk-only standards, such as the Delaney Clause, that prohibit such comparisons and can have unintended and undesirable consequences by increasing health or environmental risks while increasing the cost of producing agricultural commodities.

Securing the Border from Invasives: Robust Inspections Under Severe Uncertainty

Two important features of agricultural quarantine inspections of shipping containers for invasive species at U.S. ports of entry are the general absence of economic considerations and the severe uncertainty that surrounds invasive species introductions. In this article, we propose and illustrate a method for determining an inspection monitoring protocol that addresses both issues. An inspection monitoring protocol is developed that is robust in maximizing the set of uncertain outcomes over which an economic performance criterion is achieved. The framework is applied to derive an alternative to Agricultural Quarantine Inspection (AQI) for shipments of fruits and vegetables as currently practiced at ports of entry in the United States.