Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000003869009 | QH545.P4 P48 1993 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
Pesticides have contributed impressively to our present-day agricultural productivity, but at the same time they are at the center of serious concerns about safety, health, and the environment. Increasingly, the public wonders whether the benefits of pesticides - `the perfect red apple' - outweigh the costs of environmental pollution, human illness, and the destruction of animals and our habitat. Scientists and government officials are suspected of promoting commercial interests rather than protecting human welfare.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Contributions, most with reference to the US or Canada, from Pimentel (entomology/agriculture, Cornell Univ.), Lehman (philosophy, Univ. of Guelph), and 37 others, from many disciplines, with expertise in social and environmental effects, occupational health, methods and consequences of reducing pesticide use, alternative farming practices, impact of government policies, public attitudes, and ethics. There is some repetition in the material and several of the chapters were published earlier. This is not a balanced presentation; except for a few perfunctory sections (less than 20% of the book), it is relentlessly antagonistic toward the agricultural chemicals industry. Tendentious overview chapters offer only grudging acknowledgement of the significant historical benefits of insecticides and herbicides. Self-righteous chest-thumping by the Natural Resources Defense Council is inappropriate in a scholarly work. Even the ostensible ethical analyses seem biased and cynical; they may alienate moderate scholars, rather than invite participation in a constructive dialog. The book will be especially appealing to committed, nontechnical chemophobes; but a critical reader could extract an adequate introduction to the issues and a great deal of information. Extensive (though narrow) bibliographies. Recommended. Graduate through professional. D. W. Larson; University of Regina
