Environmental and Economic Costs of Pesticide Use

Abstract

W orldwide, approximately 2.5 million tons of pesticides are applied each year with a purchase price of $20 billion (Pesticide News 1990). In the United States, approximately 500,000 tons of 600 different types of pesticides are used annually at a cost of $4.1 billion, including application costs (Pimentel et al. 1991). Pesticides make a significant contribution to maintaining world food production. In general, each dollar invested in pesticide control returns approximately $4 in crops saved. Estimates are that losses to pests would increase 10% if no pesticides were used at all; specific crop losses would range from zero to nearly 100%. Despite the widespread use of pesticides in the United States, pests (principally insects, plant pathogens, and weeds) destroy 37% of all potential food and fiber crops (Pimentel 1990). Although pesticides are generally profitable, their use does not always decrease crop losses. For example, even with the tenfold increase in insecticide use in the United States from 1945 to 1989, total crop losses from insect damage have nearly doubled from 7% to 13% (Pimentel et al. 1991). This rise in crop losses to in-