User talk:Meghan.lyn.fischer/pest

Latest comment: 13 years ago by Enviro econ guy in topic Professor's Comments

Topics and Bibliography

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History of Pesticides/General Information:

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Exploring the history of pesticides allows for a better understanding as to how pesticides came about, why we continue to use them, and what it means for society. The history also allows us to study the advancements in science and technology for this field.

Cost-Benefit:

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We would like to add economic information about pesticides in the United States. This is an important consideration when it comes to regulations and determining at what point the cost of pesticides start to out weight the benefits (i.e. you can grow more crops on few acres of land with pesticide, but how much harm is that causing to the environment/humans).

  • Cooper, Jerry and Hans Dobson. "The benefits of pesticides to mankind and the environment." Crop Protection 26 (2007): 1337-1348.
  • Pimental, David, et al. "Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems." BioScience 55 (2005): 573-582.
  • Pimentel, David. "Environmental and Economic Costs of the Application of Pesticides Primarily in the United States." Environment, Development and Sustainability 7 (2005): 229-252.
  • Tracey, J, et al. Managing Bird Damage to Fruit and Other Horticultural Crops. Canberra: Bureau of Rural Sciences, 2007.

Pesticide Companies and the EPA:

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We want to take a look at the process a pesticide company must go through in order to put a pesticide on the market. This process of registration ensures that nothing too toxic, given current scientific data, is allowed to enter the market, this keeps humans, animals, and the environment safe.

State Pesticide Regulations:

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This section will compare the approach different states take to pesticide regulations. We will look at the policy instruments used to regulate pesticide use and how the stringency of the regulations varies from state to state. We will look at California, Texas, Florida and Indiana.

Political Considerations:

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By considering who has stake in the use of pesticides will allow for a better idea of who is affected by changes in the regulations and how those regulations came to be in the first place. Exploring this information will shed light on the three main groups that are interested in the use pesticides: farmers, the public, and the pesticide companies.

  • Cropper, Maureen L., William N. Evans, Stephen J. Berardi, Maria M. Ducla-Soares, and Paul R. Portney. "The Determinants of Pesticide Regulation: A Statistical Analysis of EPA Decision Making." The Journal of Political Economy 100.1 (1992): 175-97. JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138811>.
  • National Farmers Union. NFU. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. <http://nfu.org/about>.
  • Natural Resources Defense Council. NRDC. Web. 2 March 2010. <http://www.nrdc.org/media/2009/091229.asp>.

Policy Implementation:

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We want to look at the different instruments that are available to regulate pesticides. We also want to see if there is way in which there can be a reduction in the amount of pesticides, and if so what is the most effective and efficient way to do so.

  • Falconer, K. E. "Managing diffuse environmental contamination from agricultural pesticides: An economic perspective on issues and policy options, with particular reference to Europe." Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 69 (1998): 37-54.
  • Weersink, Alfons, John Livernois, Jason F. Shogren, and James S. Shortle. "Economic Instruments and Environmental Policy in Agriculture." Canadian Public Policy / Analyse De Politiques 24.3 (1998): 309-27. JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3551971>.
  • Zilberman, David, et al. "The Economics of Pesticide Use and Regulation." Science 253 (1991): 518-522.

(Meghan.lyn.fischer (talk) 17:13, 4 March 2011 (UTC))Reply

Professor's Comments

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You have provided quite a number of good citations. Have you thought about how each will fit into your article?

I had hoped to see more of an outline at this point in the process, though it is entirely possible I missed it. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to work up an outline as soon as possible so that you will have a direction in which to work.

The focus of the article is to be on policy related to pesticides. What are the laws, regulations, programs and such? Where did they come from? What different approaches have federal and state government actors tried? What support is there for the approaches and how well have they worked?

However, as we discussed in class, you have to understand the science, practices and impacts of the pesticide use and curtailment before you can understand its regulation. You need a strategy to provide background information on pesticides themselves. I think there is a fair bit on pesticides in Wikipedia already. Do you have a strategy for editing and referencing existing materials, or do you plan to build that material into your site (or a related cross-referenced site).

Keep at it.

Enviro econ guy (talk) 15:26, 23 March 2011 (UTC)Reply