Doesn the pesticide industry provide badly needed jobs in the Third World?
Pesticide production is capital?intensive, and so is pesticide use. That means that less rather than more people are employed when agriculture becomes chemical-dependent. Where there is a surplus of labour, as is the case in most Third Worlds countries, it simply does not make sense to eliminate jobs by turning to chemicals for pest control. In contrast, alternative pest control strategies like integrated pest management (IPM) depend more on human expertise and labour. • Was the industrial accident at the Bhopal India pesticide plant just a fluke? The Bhopal disaster which left more than 2,000 persons dead and 100,000 injured for life destroyed the myth that the chemical industry claims to have a good safety record. Major accidents in West Virgina, U.S., and in Switzerland shortly thereafter reinforced the fact that pesticide production facilities in industrialised countries are also vulnerable. The chemical processes needed to produce the active ingredients in pesticides are often hig
