Cultivating Crisis: The Human Cost of Pesticides in Latin America

by Douglas L. Murray

Overview

Since World War II, the Green Revolution has boosted agricultural production in Latin America and other parts of the Third World, with money, technical assistance, and other forms of aid from United States development agencies. But the Green Revolution came at a high price—massive pesticide dependence that has caused serious socioeconomic and public health problems and widespread environmental damage.

In this study, Douglas Murray draws on ten years of field research to tell the stories of international development strategies, pesticide problems, and agrarian change in Latin America. Interwoven with his considerations of economic and geopolitical dimensions are the human consequences for individual farmers and rural communities.

This highly interdisciplinary study, integrating the perspectives of sociology, ecology, economics, political science, and public health, adds an important voice to the debate on opportunities for and obstacles to more lasting and sustainable development in the Third World. It will be of interest to a wide audience in the social and environmental sciences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292751699
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	02/01/1995
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	191
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

Douglas L. Murray is an assistant professor of sociology at Colorado State University.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• 1. Development’s Unkept Promise
• 2. Pesticides and the Central American Cotton Boom
• 3. Cotton and the Pesticide Crisis
• 4. Addressing the Crisis through Nontraditional Agriculture
• 5. Pesticides and Social Inequity in Nontraditional Agriculture
• 6. The Search for Solutions: Integrated Pest Management
• 7. The Search for Solutions: The Safe-Use Paradigm
• 8. Pesticides, Development, and Crisis: Toward a Resolution
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

Editorial Reviews

This book will interest those wishing a balanced insight into the ecological and economic problems associated with fostering sustainable development in Third World countries.

Choice

This book will interest those wishing a balanced insight into the ecological and economic problems associated with fostering sustainable development in Third World countries.-- "Choice"

From the Publisher