PESTICIDES OR ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL POLLUTANTS - INTRODUCTION

PESTICIDES OR
ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL POLLUTANTS








MIRZA ARSHAD ALI BEG
Ph. D.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT PUBLICATIONS

136-C Rafahe Aam Housing Society
Karachi 75210



PESTICIDES OR ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL POLLUTANTS

Mirza Arshad Ali Beg

Research & Development Consultants
Karachi 75210, Pakistan

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2099.1529


ABSTRACT

The overrun of Third Change in World Economic Order was used for
maintaining superiority over the less developed and developing countries
and as deterrent on allies as well as foes during World War II. In general
the profits of WW-II viz. the chemicals, their by-products and wastes were
applied for the manufacture of a broad range of consumer items starting
from construction materials, wearing apparel, to food and agriculture and
replaced thousands of traditional items as well as traditions.




Modification of the environment to obtain a higher ecosystem that suited
the requirement of the modifiers, was just the beginning of the process of
imposing the modification on others in the lower ecosystem to consolidate
the gains obtained during the second change in world economic order. The
worst was yet to come and it did come during World War II when the warring
nations made extensive use of their mass production system to bulk
production of chemicals for warfare, and atomic power without caring for
the long range impact of their use on posterity, aiming only at short term
gains in overpowering the enemy.




The forces of industrialization and urbanization unbalanced many ecosystems
by making irreversible changes in habitat and reducing biodiversity of
colonies and conquered territories. In their lust for power and to enjoy
better quality of life and affluence, the industrialized countries have
induced environmental and social pollution. They have irresponsibly
degraded the environment of traditional homes, which have had to make
increasing use of man-made materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and
pesticides. The normal processes of bio-degradation, which degrade natural
materials including plant products have become inoperative in modifying man-
made substances to levels compatible with the environment. This has
introduced serious modifications in the ecosystem and displaced many of its
modifiers and important components.

Analysis of Corruption Perception Index, developed by Transparency
International, has been used by the author as a pointer of level of social
pollution, to show that a lowering in the score occurs with increasing
deficiencies in democratic infrastructure. The balance of good governance
is tilted towards poor governance when the driving force of social
pollution hinders the operation of the virtuous circle and allows the
informal system to operate the vicious circle. Operation of this vicious
circle has also been democratized and the global network of facilitators
and middlemen so created has globalized corruption. That is the main reason
for corruption being rampant in developing as well as developed countries.
The operation of social pollution is best described by Peter Eigen,
Chairman of TI, "Political elites and their cronies continue to take
kickbacks at every opportunity. Hand in glove with corrupt business people
they are trapping whole nations in poverty and hampering sustainable
development."



Operation of the vicious circle in application of pesticides in farming has
been at enormous costs and sacrifice of environmental values. Pesticides
brought only short term gains. Recent studies and the several case
histories do not support the views that the benefits from pesticides
outweigh the damages done to humanity and the environment. Pesticides,
particularly DDT saved the lives of millions by preventing the population
from contracting malaria, bubonic plague and typhus since the late 1940s.
That, however, was short term gain. Now people are scared of its
persistence and scourge of cancer. The forceful lobby of the manufacturers
led the users to believe that pesticides work faster and are more effective
than the alternatives. This is no longer true; their application even at
very low concentration compared to the older products, does more harm than
the latter.




Perpetuation of hunger is the tool of social pollution that favours the
corporate sector to remain in food business. It is only under such
conditions that the corporate sector is able to market its products and
earn profits. Hunger is the type of social pollution, which when imposed
takes away the ability to think, to perform normal physical actions, and to
be a rational human being. This form of social pollution has its linkage
with poverty. Of the 830 million hungry people worldwide, about 250 million
live in India but the socially diseased Indian governing hierarchy did not
distribute the surplus 10 million tons of food grains in 1999 to alleviate
poverty.



INTRODUCTION


The First major Change in World Economic Order occurred with the industrial
revolution in the mid 19th century and was followed by chemical revolution
that caused the transition in living from natural to artificial. It changed
the basic mode of production of goods and services and started changing the
lifestyle. The revolutions were comprehensively translated by the then
industrializing countries for value addition of their products, for
achieving superiority in trade and in weapons for waging wars and winning
them.

It all began with the 20th century when the countries, which initiated the
changes or were associated with them, used chemicals along with
conventional weapons to attain supremacy over those who lacked the
capability. The spill over of World War I induced the Second Change in
World Economic Order and set pace to a mechanical age that set off the
chemical revolution and initiated the development of artificial products
substituting natural materials including agricultural and food products.
Mechanical operations and chemical processes were integrated into the mass
production system, which started replacing the craft system and thus
rendering a series of well established traditional production lines
obsolete.

Land resources that were initially being developed with animal power,
yielded to use of mechanized implements. Agricultural practices of the past
were seriously modified; agricultural implements, inputs and technologies
that were otherwise available from the local environment were sidelined or
transferred to lower ecosystems. The desired resources were duly committed
from the ecosystem of the colonies, or acquired and distributed according
to the demands of processes of an organized agricultural production in a
higher ecosystem. The superiority in technology and quality of its products
emerged as the determining factor in agriculture and trade.

Modification of the environment to obtain a higher ecosystem that suited
the requirement of the modifiers, was just the beginning of the process of
imposing the modification on others in the lower ecosystem to consolidate
the gains obtained during the second change in world economic order. The
worst was yet to come and it did come during World War II when the warring
nations made extensive use of their mass production system to bulk
production of chemicals for warfare, and atomic power without caring for
the long range impact of their use on posterity, aiming only at short term
gains in overpowering the enemy.

The upper hand given to them by this second change in economic order was
instrumental in displacement of traditional methods of production. A new
phase emerged when the overrun of the use of chemicals and technologies
during post-World War II period brought in the Third Change in World
Economic Order. This third change earned the winners the pleasant living
and joys of supremacy but broadened the gulf between the rich and the poor.
It brought misery for the poor in the countries, which had been colonized
or were conquered and were not considered trade partners. The overrun was
used for maintaining superiority over the less developed and developing
countries and as deterrent on allies as well as foes during the war. In
general the profits of World War II viz. the chemicals and their products
were applied for the manufacture of a broad range of consumer items
starting from construction materials, wearing apparel, to food and
agriculture and replaced scores of traditional items as well as traditions.


The natural dyes, which were agricultural products, became scarce since
synthetic dyes became available. Drugs, pharmaceutical products and
pesticides were mass produced from chemicals and the natural products were
discredited in the industrialized countries as being slow in action and
import dependent. Availability of products from synthetic chemicals
contributed to mechanization of processes and industrialized countries, in
having taken the lead, started trading in industrial products, plants and
mechanical equipment. The lead given by the industrial revolution aided by
chemical revolution carried each industrialized country along with
enthusiasm and enabled them to enjoy the superiority attained due to their
application.

Until the industrial revolution in the Western countries, the flow of
technology was from the East to the West and the main contributors were the
established civilizations in the higher ecosystem of the Indus and Nile
Valleys. The civilizations that emerged subsequently were a result of the
will to attain supremacy over the neighbouring countries and extending
their domain to far flung territories, or the will to migrate. From the
early 19th century, there was a reversal of the process since the
colonialists started forcing their trading materials on the conquered
territories. The colonialists had started harnessing energy from steam
during the development processes that made the industrialized countries.
They subsequently developed the infrastructure facilities for mechanization
of agricultural and industrial production. They immediately set themselves
to quality controlled mass production by machinery and plants, using
synthetic chemicals wherever possible. This enabled them to become leaders
in industries, farming, mining, energy and transportation.

The process of technology development and transfer as well as trade of
value added products was one sided after the second major change in world
economic order i.e. from the industrialized to the developing countries.
The latter set of countries had been colonized during the period in which
these developments were taking place. They had to remain mere spectators to
the developments and accept the terms of trade dictated by the
colonialists.

The colonies emerged as the developing countries at the end of World War II
when the third change in economic order took place. They were still
struggling with harnessing of animal power all through this period. With
the on set of the third economic order the people in the colonies had no
option but to silently accept machine made products manufactured in the
industrialized countries and to adopt the technologies developed for crop
production, yield enhancement, crop protection, harvesting, processing,
storage etc. without even modifying them to make them appropriate to their
environment.

Industrial enterprises in the colonies, if there were any, could not face
the challenges from changes in the production system and of trade pattern
induced by the colonialists in the west. Their traditional methods had to
yield to the system that was being developed in the west. The late 19th and
early 20th century was witness to learning from the western countries and
to acquisition of technologies from there. Assembly line production system
took roots to which the entrepreneurs of the latter set of countries
responded positively and accepted the technologies and plants that became
available in the market. The entrepreneurship lay in the agro-based
industries that needed machinery for grain processing, cotton ginning,
spinning, weaving, oil expelling, metal working etc. The colonialists in
the mean time promoted the corporate culture and developed an engineering
industry base in a region of their choice only if they had a stronghold and
if it suited them to manufacture the plants and machinery there.

The forces of mechanization and industrialization using man made materials
ruthlessly induced the alteration of traditional methods and the serene
environment, which the earth initially had. These two forces have faltered
in obvious and not-so-obvious ways and their negative impact has unbalanced
many ecosystems making irreversible changes in the habitat and reducing the
biodiversity of the colonies and conquered territories. In their lust for
power and to enjoy better quality of life and affluence the industrialized
countries have reaped rich harvests from the short term positive impacts in
exploiting the resources of the colonies as well as their own and did not
take any account of the consequences of the long range negative impact of
the diverse changes.


SOCIAL POLLUTION


The process of exploiting others resources is a continuing process with
changing dimensions every so often. During the third change in economic
order the industrialized countries have geared to different ways of
sustaining their superiority in trade, industry, agriculture food
production in addition to weapons. They have, in doing so, induced changes
in lifestyle and food habits. They have irresponsibly degraded the
environment of traditional homes, which have had to make increasing use of
man-made materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and pesticides. The normal
processes of bio-degradation, which degrade natural materials including
plant products have become inoperative in modifying man-made substances to
levels compatible with the environment. This has introduced serious
modifications in the ecosystem and misplaced many of its modifiers and
important components.

Call it induction of social pollution or selfishness or by whatever name,
but it is true that the course adopted by the industrialized countries has
given rise to a rat race all over the less developed world to achieve a
better quality of life. The end of the last century did see unprecedented
gains in many indicators that are used for making an estimate of the
progress in human development, for example life expectancy, per capita
income, education and rate of growth of population. This by itself may not
be a mean achievement but it has given rise to consumerism and large scale
adoption of processes, technologies and lifestyle of the industrialized
countries, which in turn has polluted the social fabric or has caused
social pollution to take deep roots. Social pollution in taking different
forms and shape is largely responsible for the disparity in incomes between
the rich and poor within nations and between wealthy and poor nations. The
disparity has in general continued to widen, meaning that a relatively
small percentage of the global population and nations controls the economic
forces and natural resources of the world.

The last half century was the period when the impact of human activity on
the physical environment increased dramatically as a result of increase in
the scope and intensity of the third change in world economic order. This
period was witness to many negative trends, such as loss of tropical
forests, accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and appearance
of a wide hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctica followed by its
widening. It was also the period when the industrialized countries passed
on the evils of social pollution to the developing countries and had
started getting control on their economy.

At this stage it will be appropriate to introduce the term social
pollution, which is an act of pollution of the social status of the
societies by evil forces. These forces act in different ways to pollute the
physical as well as social environment. They include the processes that
corrupt groups, societies and countries engaged in trying to establish
their superiority over others. They also include technology transfer
processes used by industrialized countries in corrupting the environment of
the developing countries. Deviation of national polity from its course of
development which is to secure the maximum good for the well being of the
maximum people, shows that the governing hierarchy of the country is not
keeping the greater good of the people in mind and hence is practicing
double standards or dichotomy. This is a departure from the virtuous circle
to vicious circle and is a gross act of social pollution, which when
compounded by other components of social degeneration viz. VIP culture,
cronyism, patronage intrigue, manipulation, dishonesty, and incompetence,
can degrade the social environment and sink it into the filth of social
pollution.

Social pollution has largely been induced by the elites of a social system
be it the upper stratum of a society or of a nation or one nation over
another. Industrialized and industrializing countries induce their
superiority to gain commercial interests in the poor and developing
countries. The multinational corporations MNCs, in collusion with their
governments exploit the poor countries and their masses and the governing
hierarchy of the two sets of countries aids this process of exploitation.
Such groups are blinded by promises of luxuries and siphoning of dirty
money, and have by promoting collaboration between the governing hierarchy
and MNCs, done irreversible damages to their country. The collaboration
helps the governing hierarchy in gaining control by keeping the masses
economically, politically and socially impoverished and the MNCs as well as
the respective countries in perpetuating their economic and political
dominance.

The promised gains of investment have nowhere been realized unless the
recipients of capital and technology are from among those at the grass root
level. Capital and technology invested in developing countries by
industrialized countries after World War II hardly made any difference
anywhere unless the country had a system that was vigilant about the evil
forces of social pollution. Only a few countries belong to the latter group
and that is why only a tiny minority was able to make its way unscathed by
the temptations of social pollution yet attaining the economic and
industrial level of the times after World War II. It might have made a
difference if such countries were in a majority, since they would then be
dictating terms to create the circumstances for the governing hierarchy to
fulfill its constitutional responsibility and secure the maximum good for
the maximum people. However, the gulf between the industrialized and yet-to-
develop or developing countries was so large that safeguards could not be
provided to ensure that the negative forces of social pollution do not take
away the benefits. On the contrary these negative forces were claimed as a
matter of right by the industrialized countries and the MNCs and in many
cases the governing hierarchy, in having become partners to the negative
forces, could not eradicate the evils of social pollution.

Departure from the virtuous circle is indicated when the daily perception
and experience shows escalation in inefficiency in administration and when
people can not get their jobs done without giving a bribe in public dealing
government offices, ministries and divisions, and also when dishonest and
inefficient managers of the economy or the governance system escape with
booty amassed during their tenure in office. Social pollution is widespread
if the departure from the virtuous circle is extensive and can be measured
from the index of corruption perception, CPI developed by Transparency
International.

Corruption Perception Index: Good governance of democracy and democratic
processes in a country is constrained by several components of social
pollution, which raise the level of corruption. Transparency International
has quantified the level of corruption by devising a scale of Corruption
Perception Index, CPI, which was published for 102countries in the year
2002. The CPI scale has been developed with respect to the values attached
by the society to democracy and trade. CPI Score, according to Transparency
International, relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen
by business people, risk analysts and the general public and ranges between
10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt). For arriving at the CPI it uses
surveys to assess the performance of a country. At least 3 surveys are
required for a country to be included in the CPI.

Analysis of CPI, used here as a pointer of level of social pollution, shows
that a lowering in the score occurs with increasing deficiencies in
democratic infrastructure. The governance system is, with the exception of
a few countries with high CPI, the balance struck by the operation of the
formal and informal organizations running parallel to one another. The
balance of good governance is tilted towards poor governance when the
driving force of social pollution hinders the operation of the virtuous
circle and causes the informal system to operate the vicious circle.
Likewise deviation from the CPI score of 10 is an indicator of dominance of
social pollution and the tilting of the virtuous circle towards operation
of vicious circle.

The countries for which CPI has been listed by Transparency International
can be distributed on the basis of strength and dynamism of the driving
force of social pollution into four groups: The four groups according to TI
listing comprise (i) least corrupt nations where social pollution is
minimum with a score of 9.0 and over; Finland on top is followed by
Denmark, New Zealand, Iceland, Singapore, Sweden, Canada, Luxembourg and
Netherlands, (ii) moderately corrupt 18 industrialized countries with a
score ranging between 5.0 and 8.0, where the enjoy-the-richness psyche is
operational, (iii) highly corrupt 63 countries with a score decreasing from
4.9 to 2.0 with increasing level of social pollution, and (iv) the most
corrupt countries with a score of less than 2.0 and they include Indonesia,
Kenya, Angola, Madagascar, Paraguay, Nigeria, with Bangladesh at the
bottom. The high level of social pollution in these countries is the result
of get-rich-quickly psyche of the governing hierarchy, however, Bangladesh
is, according to TI, perceived to have exceptionally serious problems with
corruption.

The level of corruption is different in the four cases; the group (iii) and
(iv) countries have the eyes of the social degenerates set on accumulation
of wealth while the psyche of those in group (ii) revolves around enjoying-
the-richness and the amassed wealth is used for playing with it. The
industrialized countries of group (ii) have, during the three major changes
in world economic order, developed the enjoy-the-richness-and-
resourcefulness psyche and are being dictated by the status so attained to
consume twice as much in food, energy and other goods and services as they
did 25 years ago, 10 times as much as they did at the beginning of the
third change in world economic order and 100 times what they were consuming
at the beginning of the second change in economic order.

The people in the colonies and emerging as developing countries have all
the time been paying the price of consumerism and extravagance enjoyed by
the elites everywhere. The impact of consumerism and extravagance has
surfaced up in the form of degraded land, polluted air, rivers and the sea,
and loss of biodiversity. Democratic processes have been instrumental in
eradicating the evils of social pollution only when democracy is not
hijacked or imposed They have been effective in reducing the disorderliness
of societies concerned if the polluting forces have been removed. The
process has been slow, however, because non-democratic forces of social
pollution are often found governing the democratic processes.

Countries in group (iii) and (iv) have not attended to eradication of
social pollution and hence have a highly disordered governance system. That
is where democracy is displaced. Interestingly their 1998 as well as 2002
CPI score is low, suggesting that they are among the most socially polluted
countries in the 1998 list of 85 and the 2002 list of 102 countries.
Pakistan had a CPI score of 2.3 and ranked 80th among 91 countries in the
2001 CPI ranking, while in 2002 its score was 2.6 and ranked 77th among
102 countries. In 1998 Pakistan's score was 2.7 and it ranked 72nd in the
list of 85 countries which shows that it has not improved in terms of
social pollution during the last four years. Accordingly the democratic
infrastructure in Pakistan continues to be deficient and the informal
sector continues to enjoy the same privilege in the governance system as
before.

It is interesting to note that the above four groups match closely with the
groups that emerge from the list of 21 countries for which TI developed the
Bribe Payers Index, BPI to describe what may be appropriately called
keenness-to-bribe. The four classes correspond to (i) with least keenness
to pay bribes, (ii) with medium keenness, (iii) with eagerness to be bribed
and (iv) excited to bribe and be bribed. The countries with least keenness-
to-bribe are least corrupt, while the 'excited-to-bribe-and-be-bribed' are
among the most corrupt by CPI ranking. TI has documented the keenness of
private companies in the top exporting nations to bribe in their export
markets by firms from Russia, China, Taiwan and South Korea, closely
followed by Italy, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, USA and France, many of them
being signatory to OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

The level of social pollution is best described by Peter Eigen, Chairman of
TI, "Political elites and their cronies continue to take kickbacks at every
opportunity. Hand in glove with corrupt business people they are trapping
whole nations in poverty and hampering sustainable development." He goes on
to say, "Corrupt political elites in the developing world, working hand-in-
hand with greedy business people and unscrupulous investors, are putting
private gain before the welfare of citizens and the economic development of
their countries. From illegal logging to blood diamonds, we are seeing the
plundering of the earth and its people in an unsustainable way." Eigen
perhaps is unaware of the network that operates in developing countries
like Pakistan whose CPI score is less than 3.0 and does not allow the
benefits of development to reach the common man despite changes in the
governing hierarchy.

Another interesting feature of the CPI 2002 is that it identifies countries
with CPI score less than 3.0 in group (iii) and (iv) where the governing
hierarchy generally deviates from its course of National polity. It
indulges in poor governance due to operation of the various components of
social pollution such as VIP culture, cronyism, patronage, intrigue,
manipulation, dishonesty, and incompetence. The daily perception and
experience indicates escalating inefficiency in administration due to which
people can not get their jobs done without giving a bribe in public dealing
government offices, ministries and divisions. The common denominator among
all such countries is that dishonest and inefficient managers of economy or
governance system escape with booty amassed during their tenure in office.

With regard to misgovernance Eigen said while launching the 2002 CPI, "In
the past year, we have seen setbacks to the credibility of democratic rule.
In parts of South America, the graft and misrule of political elites have
drained confidence in the democratic structures that emerged after the end
of military rule. Argentina, where corruption is perceived to have soared,
joins Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador,
Haiti and Paraguay with a score of 3 or less in the CPI 2002." Similarly
many countries in the former Soviet Union remain ridden with corruption.
CPI 2002 indicates that "Russia has a long way to go and remains seriously
corrupt, together with Uzbekistan, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova
and Azerbaijan, all of which score less than 3 out of 10."

Developed countries in group (ii) "offer bribes and incentives to corrupt
public officials and politicians and subvert the orderly development of
poor nations that are already trapped in a vicious circle of crippling
poverty, hunger and disease. As such corruption continues to deny the poor,
the marginalized, and the least educated members of every society the
social, economic and political benefits that should properly accrue to
them, benefits that are taken for granted in societies that have managed to
shake off the yoke of corruption."

Eigen did not say so, but it is implicit from the scores that Group (ii)
countries with CPI score between 5.0 and 8.0, induce corruption to enhance
their market forces and to open the economies of developing countries for
their products. The group includes USA, Germany, Israel, France, Spain and
Italy and is accused of globalizing corruption since they exploit the
resources of weaker and emerging economies through a large network of MNCs.
They include Japan with a score of 7.1 ranking at 21, Germany with 7.3 at
18, besides USA with a score of 7.7 and ranking 16 and Israel with a score
of 7.3 and ranking at 19. The group includes Asian economies that have
ascended the growth ladder by exploiting others resources. Taiwan,
investing in setting up industries in developing countries around the world
is placed 30th with CPI of 5.6, has been pushed downward from 27th and with
the score of 5.9. Malaysia at 36th with a score of 5.0 in 2001 is placed
34th but with its score pushed down to 4.9, which places it in group (iii).
South Korea remains in group (iii), maintaining its 43rd ranking but
improving its score from 4.2 in 2001 to 4.5 in 2002. The MNCs of group (ii)
countries exploit the developing countries and their masses, and the
governing hierarchy of the former countries aids this process of
exploitation.

Developing countries which form group (iii) and (iv) are the ones that are
exploited and pay the price of consumerism. The result has surfaced up in
the form of degraded land, polluted rivers, air and sea, and loss of
biodiversity. Democratic processes have been instrumental in eradicating
the evils of social pollution and reducing the disorderliness of the
societies concerned. Countries in the said groups have not attended to
eradication of the network of social pollution because it thrives in a
highly disordered governance system that is sustained by the forces of
corruption induced by countries in group (ii) as well as the governing
hierarchy. That is why democratic infrastructure is weak in such countries.
Interestingly their 1998 as well as 2002 CPI score is low, suggesting that
they were among the most socially polluted countries in the 1998 list of 85
and remain so in the 2002 list of 102 countries. The high level of social
pollution is borne out by the dearth of public trust in the government and
rise in frustration over the lack of change of economic fortunes and
genuine political reforms.

It is apparent from the above analysis that corruption forms an integral
part of democratized capitalism in countries of group (ii). The latter have
provided the driving force to corruption for their enjoying-the-richness
psyche. Democratic processes, however, cannot work in a socially polluted
environment in which the network of social polluters operates the vicious
circle and of which the governing hierarchy is the main component having
the psyche that denies sharing-the-resources. Operation of this vicious
circle has also been democratized and the global network of facilitators
and middlemen so created has globalized corruption. That is the main reason
for corruption being rampant in developing as well as developed countries.

Countries that have duly attended to eradication of social pollution and
have reduced the disorderliness in their governance system are placed in
group (i). The high CPI score suggests that they are among the least
socially polluted countries. They have the reputation of being unconcerned
with pushing in democracy, and in enhancing market forces to open the
economies of other countries for their products. They were not directly
participating in the affairs of the cold war and they do not have a large
network of MNCs nor are their corporations ambitious in getting their
products in by any means. The secret of their success is honesty,
commitment to quality control and non-interference in affairs of others.

A close examination of the characteristics of the high CPI score and low
ranking countries suggests that they were not colonized by a foreign
government and hence do not have the parasitic social elites with feudal
psychological frame of mind in contrast with the developing countries. They
have been through a civil war or strife, which put their nationhood at
stake; the conflict was among patriots. The system of governance was the
issue during their strife for civil liberties. None of their citizens is
dubbed a traitor nor dehumanized in like manner. Their armed services are
firmly in the hands of civil authorities and despite having nuclear
capability have no nuclear weaponry.

There is no concept of the rural landowner being a dominant political
force. Agricultural production accounts for 20% of the GDP but they are
self sufficient in basic food grains. They are self-sufficient in
agricultural production and also in practically all key natural resources.
They are self-reliant in their energy requirement, and have autarky in
steel production, a large engineering industry and hence a comprehensive
industrial base, which contributes to their superiority over all others in
the developing countries. To utilize these capabilities, they have evolved
such external trade patterns that do not make them vulnerable to financial
or commodity blackmail. Above all they have a national goal and a
commitment to achieve certain targets.

It may be seen therefore that it is by virtue of their inherent strengths
that the countries with high CPI score and low ranking have been entitled
to have the superior status, rather than the possession of immense
resources of minerals, energy or nuclear capability or immense capability
to exploit others resources and dictate terms.

Controlling Global Social Pollution: Free economies in group (ii) have
successfully democratized capitalism globally for an upper hand in World
trade. The success was the result of endeavours of the last half century,
which paid off in the 1990s, when the trading partners in these countries
reaped rich harvests from the third change in economic order. With their
upper hand in trading, these countries have demanded standardization of
quality of products, environmental protection, human rights etc. and have
constrained the developing countries to open their market. For this purpose
all the countries of the world have had to lower their trade barriers so
that goods and services could be sold across the borders without
restriction. The credit for this success goes to countries in group (ii),
led by USA, which forced the developing countries to breach their network.

With corruption rampant all over the world, international organizations,
multinational firms, and donors have already invigorated their efforts to
emphasize on ways and means to fight corruption and to offer aid based on
effective reform programmes. Pakistan was once told that almost half of the
development budget is siphoned away and even the so-called prestigious
Social Action Programme (SAP) of $8 billion could not be saved from corrupt
practices and gross misappropriation of funds. It is because of the above
reasons that all the international donor agencies have asked the Government
of Pakistan to effectively check corruption in government agencies through
good governance.

Corruption and social pollution, if they have to be bridled, will have to
be considered in terms of new dimensions to capitalism. Countries in the
above group (ii) and also classed in group (ii) of Bribe Payers Index as
those with medium keenness to bribe, have in fact been working for
democratizing capitalism. They have, in their lust to maintain superiority
in trade provided the driving force for corruption through their enjoying-
the-richness psyche. If only such countries cut down the forces of
corruption and change their psyche to sharing-the-resources, the vicious
circle will be busted and so will the global network of facilitators and
middlemen which is responsible for corruption in developing countries. The
suggested change is possible since if globalization of corruption has been
achieved by intensifying the driving force of social pollution, its
reversal should likewise be attainable by controlling the same forces.
This, however, can be achieved only by pooling up the resources for sharing
the richness globally.

The 1990s are witness to the fourth change in world economic order where
the world is left with only one super power and the application of
information technology, of biotechnology and of the low input agricultural
initiatives have intensified. These technologies have the potential to
reduce environmental problems of soil erosion and wildlife protection, and
to reduce health concerns and environmental contamination associated with
the use of agricultural chemicals. They nevertheless are not without tears
and are not being accepted by the countries of their own origin. It may
appear from the following that it is only the induction of social pollution
that is helping the chemical and biochemical technologies to remain alive.
Chemicals seem to have done sufficient damage to the environment and the
health of the farmer as well as consumer to be phased out in the very near
future or at least not to continue to play a major role in maintaining the
food and fibre supply.

Historically the social pollution syndrome has worked its way through
transfer of technologies discarded by the industrialized countries to the
developing countries. They are strongly recommended for grounding by the
governing hierarchy of the industrial economies and have in the past come
under food aid or as embodied technologies. It is feared that the story
with respect to the chemicals will be repeated and developing countries
will be silent spectators to the phenomena of structural adjustment.

AgriChemicals Industry

The crop protection and seeds industries offer products which provide
essential support to modern agriculture. Both industries have been
fundamental to the agricultural productivity improvements that have enabled
food production to increase alongside population and economic growth. These
improvements have come almost entirely from increasing crop yields. The
area of land under cultivation has expanded very little in recent years.

Crop protection products and seeds are key agricultural inputs. Demand for
them is driven by:
– Population growth. Projected growth of approximately 1% a year over the
next 20 years will take the world population from its current level of 6
billion to 7.5 billion by 2020.
– Economic growth. As people become wealthier they consume more and higher-
quality food. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
forecasts a 40% increase in demand for grain by 2020.
-- Land availability. Arable land is scarce in many parts of the world and
under pressure from urbanization and industrial uses. Accordingly, there is
continual pressure to increase the productivity of available resources.
-- Sustainability. Without increases in productivity, more land will
have to be brought under cultivation, with potentially severe adverse
impact on the environment.
– Technology. Innovations that provide new benefits can spur
significant market growth. These may relate to conventional crop
protection chemicals and seeds, but increasingly derive from
biotechnology, which can both create new opportunities in crop
protection, and confer valuable new traits upon seeds.

Promotion of Agribusiness

The dawn of the fourth change in economic order witnessed the escalation of
industrial activities, consolidation of the gains of the three world
economic orders to assume and maintain leadership role by the industrial
economies all over, and their inducement of physical and social changes in
the environment of the developing countries. Industrialized countries of
group (ii) in the CPI ranking/social pollution order have, during the same
period, been polluting the physical and social environment of their own
group as well as that of the countries in group (iii) and (iv).
Additionally they have been creating scares and then offering a road map to
defuse them. They for example created the scare of population bomb during
the first 20 years and have tried to defuse it in the next 25 years, by
claiming that it was the pace set by them in voluntarily lowering the birth
rate that resolved the issue. It may be so but the scare prompted their
extensive participation in introduction followed by capturing the market
for vaccines, antibiotics, fertilizers, insecticides, high-yielding variety
seeds, contraceptive technology, mass communication, and women's rights, in
addition to improvement in water supply, sanitation, and transportation
networks. It was thus possible to control the high fertility rates that had
led to an annual growth exceeding 3.1%, a rate that doubles population size
in 23 years in many developing nations, declining to 2.0% and decreasing
still further to attain zero growth.

Industrialized countries provided domestic support and export subsidies for
sustenance of their agriculture sector initially in view of food shortage
experienced at the end of World War II, when the use of chemicals and man
made materials was introduced extensively in almost every walk of life and
the natural products were ruthlessly sidelined. The respective governments
effectively protected the producers and cared little if the ecosystem of
the disadvantaged developing countries would be permanently unbalanced. The
resulting technological developments towards the use and production of
fertilizers, insecticides, and antibiotics led to the growth and expansion
of industrial agriculture and agribusiness. Developments in the agriculture
sector combined with superiority in trade enabled the agribusiness of USA
to export the surplus production at favourable terms and subsequently as
food aid that turned out to be a mechanism for finding new markets in the
developing and least developed countries. This was in total disregard of
the interest and need of billions of farmers in the latter region.

Agriculture is the mainstay and way of life for a large majority of people
in developing countries. They all have more than 50% of the people living
on the farms, in contrast with the industrialized countries, which have
mechanized their agriculture e.g. European Union, EU having 4% and USA with
2% people on the farms. The low income developing countries employ 70% of
labour force, middle income countries employ 30% while high income
countries employ only 4%. The share of agriculture in GDP as of 1990-96 was
34% for low income countries, 8% for middle income and 1.5% for high income
countries, while its earning in foreign exchange as of 1995-97 was 34%,
27.3% and 8.3% for the three sets of countries respectively. The developing
and least developed countries are at the disadvantage that the yield per
hectare is seriously constrained by the high cost and reduced availability
of inputs including water, fertilizer and pesticides and have to depend on
import and aid of inputs as well as food.

When first offered, food aid was confused with charity and hence did not
sound odd. It soon became apparent to the recipients that the aid was not
free but a long handle of social pollution, offered as a loan at low
interest rate. When the USA sent wheat to India and Pakistan during the
1960s, it was under the US PL-480 programme, which required the cost to be
paid in rupees and those rupees could be utilized towards another project
preferably related to agriculture. Indonesia received the food aid during
the 1999 crisis and that was a loan to be paid back over a twenty-five-year
period. Thus the food aid was a tool of social pollution to help the USA in
taking over grain markets in India, Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan and elsewhere.
The same tool was used for achieving political objectives for example in
North Korea, where famine conditions were deliberately allowed to aggravate
so as to bring the country to its knees before food assistance was sent.

The agribusiness enjoys having its handle of social pollution extended to
disbursement of food aid since that is how it sells its products and cashes
on its investment. For business promotion it does not care if it renders a
whole community starved. During the famine of the 1980s in Somalia and
Ethiopia aid of grains arrived on having been procured from large MNCs in
Canada and America. It was great disappointment for the Ethiopian farmers
since the grains arrived after the rains were over and crops were ready.
They were deprived of their livelihoods as their produce was dumped in the
market at low price, and also for the people who were forced to buy
imported food at high price, which not many could pay. What the food aid
predominantly did and keeps doing is to destroy local agricultural
infrastructure as its central function. Once the local farmers have been
driven out of business, the people of the region become dependent on the
aid donor for survival.

The story was repeated in Mexico where the agricultural sector was
liberalized under North America Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. Maize is a
source of livelihood for its 3 million people, which accounts for 40% of
its agriculture sector. US maize is also grown on large farms. A massive
influx of US maize often results in large reduction in the prices and the
local farmers are in great anxiety. On the other hand there are no input
subsidies or government support. Therefore native farmers have to face
serious problems. They have minimized their production for their domestic
need only. Most of the farmers are migrating to urban areas for employment
or planning to sell their land to MNCs on cheap rates.

The case is not much different in Pakistan whose national economy depends
largely on its agriculture sector. More than 74% of the population of the
country lives in rural areas of which 93% are small farmers, with
agriculture as their main source of income. Its share in GDP in the year
2001 was 26.4%. These small farmers work with conventional methods of
farming. They do not have financial capacity or government support to use
new technology for cultivation of their crops. The small farmers have
already had the taste of marginalization by the food aid and with the
disastrous consequences already noted for Mexico, they are apprehensive of
the trade liberalization in agriculture sector, which because of the
structural adjustments suggested by IMF, seem to be around the corner.

The industrialized countries, it is apparent from the above cases, have
nothing to lose since they are already advanced in their methods of
cultivation and crop yields and with a long handle of social pollution,
they are in a position to dismantle the domestic production system and
enhance food insecurity. What has become more disturbing in recent years is
the apprehension that MNCs are determined to increase their control over
the world supply of food by marketing genetically engineered, GE crops and
agricultural chemicals, including pesticides and fertilizers.

Politics of Food Production: Food is required for maintaining personal life
processes but during and after World War II it has been used more for gains
in trade and politics. The French Revolution, for example was not driven
just by the ideals of liberty, freedom, and egalitarianism, but by the fact
that there was not enough bread in Paris. There were riots in Peru in the
1970s because the World Bank had suggested adjustments that included an
increase in the price of bread. The Zapatista uprising and the protests in
Bolivia were spurred in the 1990s by food shortages and privatization of
basic necessities of life. The same has been true in Pakistan and India. In
1995, villagers in Mexico stopped trains to loot corn and not gold.

Food riots and famine are, however, not because of crop failure and food
shortage but because of politics of food production, and serve as a fact
sheet of social pollution. The fact of the matter is that global food
production has always remained generally adequate to meet human nutritional
needs all over. Adequate wheat, rice and other grains are grown each year
to easily feed every human being with 3,500 calories a day, much more than
the average of 2250 calories required for healthy living. However, since
the distribution system has never been equitable, over a quarter of the
world population remains undernourished. Yields of the major grain crops
may have enhanced, though not in Pakistan, but post-harvest losses have
remained high, soil degradation from erosion and poor irrigation practices
have continued to harm agricultural lands and have put the production
system in developing and least developed countries at risk. In general, the
farming practices have continued to remain resource-inefficient and the
industrialized countries, in order to create a market for their products
such as agricultural machinery, pesticides and fertilizers have been
transferring their methods to keep their agro industries in business.

The USA grows 40% more food every year than it needs. France, Canada and
Australia had increased their net cereal export in 1985-86 by 65% over
1975, while the number of cereal exporting countries in Europe increased
from four to ten during the same period. In the mean time the net cereal
imports increased in all the developing countries. USA, Canada and the
European countries were among the largest donors of food during this
period. The food surplus countries, however, would prefer to offer the
surplus in aid rather than making it available to famine areas on
humanitarian grounds, mainly because the latter mode of disbursement
requires sharing the surplus with the needy and does not bring cash that is
needed by the farmer to feed his stomach. Providing food to the hungry is a
philosophical and social issue, which from the growers and traders point of
view demands that there should be more and hungrier people to buy their
produce. For the grain exporting industrialized countries it would require
that crops should fail in grain importing countries so that hunger should
perpetuate among the poor and malnourished majority in the impoverished
countries.

Feeding the hungry on humanitarian grounds is, according to performance of
agribusiness in USA and other industrialized countries, more a game of
politics than a human rights issue. This is why 46% of food aid given in
1985-86 was for sale in the indebted countries for domestic sale to enable
them to earn revenue to meet the adverse balance of payment situation. This
is also the reason that countries like Indonesia where people do not eat
wheat are given wheat in aid. Interestingly 24% of the food aid was given
as a component of agriculture, for rural development and nutrition projects
besides creating food security reserves.

The industrialized countries, their MNCs and the institutions run by them
viz. the IMF and World Bank are the main actors in the game of politics of
food production to collectively decide as to who should be fed and who
should starve. The farmers in the poor countries are, despite global
plenty, abandoning agriculture because they just cannot compete with the
heavily-subsidized foods which are flooded by the industrialized countries
under the agreements aiming at liberalization of trade. In Pakistan, many
farmers have to burn their harvests since the price they may fetch is too
low compared with the cost of picking and transportation, leave alone the
high cost of agricultural input. In Indonesia the government imports rice
from Vietnam while its own farmers are bringing in their rice harvest to
the market.

It may be seen that perpetuation of hunger is the tool of social pollution
that favours the corporate sector to remain in food business. It is only
under such conditions that the corporate sector is able to market its
products and earn profits. Hunger is the type of social pollution, which
when imposed takes away the ability to think, to perform normal physical
actions, and to be a rational human being. This form of social pollution
has its linkage with poverty. Of the 830 million hungry people worldwide,
about 250 million live in India but the socially diseased Indian governing
hierarchy did not distribute the surplus 10 million tons of food grains in
1999 to alleviate poverty. The surplus increased in the year 2000 to 60
million tons, most of which was allowed to rot in the granaries in the hope
of exporting the commodity. The government also did not buy grain from its
farmers. The farmers, who had gone into debt to purchase expensive chemical
fertilizers and pesticides on the advice of the government, were forced to
burn their crops on their fields. In the mean time India imported grains
from USA and is continuing as the largest importer of the same grain that
it exports.

Indonesia achieved food self-sufficiency in 1985 but by 1998, it was the
largest recipient of food aid in the world. It is not that there were no
more crops in Indonesia. The reason was that the USA and Australia were to
unload their surplus wheat under the conditions agreed to by Jakarta to get
food aid. This, as noted earlier, was despite the fact that Indonesians do
not eat wheat.

Transfer of technologies or extension of resource intensive economic model
to developing nations, or offering food aid instead of building capacity to
grow food, as is occurring on a global scale, amounts to inciting social
pollution of high order and should not be regarded socially and
environmentally viable. Of particular concern are the farming practices
that are not resource-efficient and the industrialized countries, in order
to create a market for their products such as pesticides, fertilizers and
genetically engineered seeds have been transferring their products as well
as methods that are in innumerable cases neither socially sound nor
environmentally viable.

Poverty and Impoverishment of Resources: Land for growing staple grain
crops was shrinking throughout the last five decades since agricultural
land in the developing countries was being lost due to impoverishment of
resources and was yielding to the pressure of urbanization. What was needed
was to bridge the gap between the urban and rural development so that the
rural poor were less inclined to migrate to urban areas in search of food
and employment, which was not there. The structural adjustment politics
that goes hand in hand with the strategy to liberalize the market economy,
has strained the poor, robbed him of the capacity to grow his food and has
impoverished the rural areas to the extent that hunger prevails all over.

Poverty has been induced in developing countries including Pakistan by
impoverishment of resources in the rural areas. In Pakistan it has forced
rural-urban migration but urban centres have not provided the migrants what
they were looking for. A stage has reached where an average Pakistani finds
himself poorer with every passing day. Poverty doubled from 17.3% in 1987-
88 to 32.6% in 1998-99. The household income of the lowest quintile or 20%
of the population remained static during the last 33 years at around 7%. It
was 6.4% in 1963-64 and after touching 8.4% a year later, came to 7% in
1996-97. The income of the middle 60% dropped from 48.3% to 43.6% in the
mean time. The share of the top quintile, however, rose from 45.3% to
49.4%, suggesting the creation of a wide gap between the top quintile,
which monopolized half the income and the bottom quintile that had to
remain contented with a meagre 7% of the total income.

By the end of July 2000 the number of people living below the poverty line
in Pakistan had shot up four times in two decades as a result of persistent
decline in economic growth caused by the gradual depletion of
resourcefulness resulting from absence of good governance of the system of
distribution of resources, misappropriation of national wealth and
operation of the forces of social pollution. The population was 84.25
million in 1981 and was growing at a rate of 3.2% per annum and
decelerating to 2.7% thereafter had reached a figure of 134 million in
1998. Poverty was estimated by the Centre for Human Development to be
afflicting 40% in 1998 as against 21.2% in 1980-81, 28.6% in 1986-87and
35.9% in 1992-93. A projection of these figures to the present situation
which is painted with nothing but gloom, suggests that the poverty line has
dragged 10 to 12% more people from the lower middle class and it stands at
above 55%. Development activities were obviously too inadequate to improve
the quality of life and the basket of basic needs comprising food,
clothing, shelter, healthcare, education, transport, potable water and
energy was exhausted and could not be made available to a major section of
population.

In contrast with the impoverishment noted above, the consumption of natural
resources by modern industrial economies remained very high at 45 to 85
metric tons per person annually when all materials, including soil erosion,
mining wastes, and other ancillary materials are taken into consideration.
At the end of the last century it required almost 300 kg of natural
resources to generate one hundred dollars of income in the most advanced
economies. Use of such high volume of materials indicates how resource
intensive are the technologies developed to meet the needs of the enjoy-the-
richness syndrome of the industrialized countries that are placed in group
(ii) of the CPI ranking/social pollution order, besides suggesting the
massive environmental degradation resulting from them.

Chemicals in Crop Production

Crop production requires fertilizers, pesticides and seeds, which together
offer products that provide essential support to modern agriculture. These
three components are fundamental to agricultural productivity improvements
that have enabled food production to increase alongside population and
economic growth. These improvements have come almost entirely from
increasing crop yields and not from increase in area under cultivation,
which expanded very little in recent years in the industrialized countries
but did so substantially in developing countries.

Taking a glance at the historical development of modern agriculture one
finds that while the mechanical era of 1920-1950 led to significant
increase in agricultural production and dramatic decrease in the need for
farm labour, the chemical era of 1950-1980 boosted productivity through the
use of chemical fertilizers, feed additives, and pesticides to save crops
from pests. It is estimated that during a 20 year period from 1964 to 1985
global fertilizer use increased from 34 to 86 kg/ha of cropland. In the USA
it increased from 63 to 101, in Bangladesh from 6 to 60 and in Pakistan
from 5 to 64 kg/ha of cropland. The average annual pesticide use was
394,629 tons in the first five years of the 1980s in USA while it was 673
tons in Bangladesh and 232 tons in Pakistan during the same period. The
index of production of all crops increased in Pakistan from 100 in 1959-60
to 298 in 1985-86 (Pakistan Economic Survey, 1995-96), in Bangladesh from
80 in 1964-66 to 114 in 1984-86 and in the USA from 74 to 103 (World
Resources, 1988-89). Although this production rise was due largely to
increased use of plant fertilizers, new plant hybrids, and irrigation,
pesticides contributed equally to the increase. Consequently the use of
pesticides in industrialized countries recorded considerable rise during
the period.

It did not take long after World War II for the negative impact of the
downside of widespread use of man made materials to surface up in the
environment. The consequences of using agricultural chemicals without
assessment of the impact on the health of users were waiting only for the
critical limit to arrive. Degradation of the environment as a result of
excessive use of hazardous chemicals, including pesticides was realized in
the 1960s with the publication of the Silent Spring. Warming of the earth
as a result of excessive use of fossil fuel and emission of carbon dioxide
was realized in the mid-1970s when the CO2 concentration doubled from the
level observed in the earlier half of the century. Thinning of the ozone
layer and appearance of the ozone hole over the Antarctica was observed in
the late 1980s and attributed to the extensive use of chloroflurocarbons,
CFCs.

The application of agrochemicals on crop for protection as well as
production had serious negative impact on the physical and human
environment. Initially the accidents due to use of chemicals in crop
protection and production did not matter since the tragedies such as the
killing and intoxication of spraymen in Pakistan in 1976 and the Bhopal MIC
leakage in 1984 were reported from the developing countries. They have now
become very important since the negative impact on health is being reported
from the manufacturing countries. As will be seen in the following pages,
reports of damages done to the environment are pouring in incessantly from
America and the industrialized countries.

The worst is the case of pesticides of repute whose negative impacts were
not adequately reported when introduced. Agricultural pesticides are
chemical poisons. They are sprayed onto crops at certain times of the year
and during application people living near sprayed fields get a sudden dose
of these chemicals through their lungs, skin and drinking water. Receiving
shock doses of poisons results in endocrine disruption leading to
abnormalities. Recently a study of 4 and 5 year-old children exposed to
pesticides in Mexico specifically noted a decrease in mental ability and an
increase in aggressive behavior among children, indicating thyroid
dysfunction. Functionally, the exposed children demonstrated decreases in
stamina, gross and fine eye-hand coordination, 30-minute-memory, and the
ability to draw a person. Behavior of pesticide-exposed children was
described as abnormal. Some valley children were observed hitting their
siblings when they passed by, and they became easily upset or angry with a
minor corrective comment by a parent. These aggressive behaviours were not
noted in the foothills. In humans, as in dogs, behaviour and learning
disabilities are seen long before any clinical signs of thyroid dysfunction
are manifest.

Despite the fact that pesticides are a key factor in food and fibre
abundance in USA, the public is concerned that they have excessively
adverse effects on human health and the environment (Ragsdale and Sisler,
1994). During the 1960's there was also a documented rise in pest (insect)
resistance to many pesticides. The resistance issue still continues to
demand attention and includes plant pathogens (Sanders, 1990). Today,
concerns exist in the USA about the environment, health, nutrition, and
safety of food supply. In particular, a great deal of concern is expressed
on the effects of pesticide chemicals on the health of infants and young
children.

The success in application of chemicals in crop production and protection
was the driving force in the growth of agribusiness, which led to the
emergence of scores of chemical enterprises. Consumption of chemicals had
an explosive rate of growth. Prompted by the determination to increase
their control over the world supply of food and agricultural chemicals, the
Agrochemical MNCs invested heavily in research and development. About 3
new synthetic chemicals were introduced each day during the 1960-80 period.
The cost of developing a marketable product from the research laboratory to
the field jumped from $20 million 20 to 25 years ago to more than $100
million as of now. Almost nothing was known about the long-term health and
environmental effects of new synthetics, so the humanity was ambushed again
and again by discoveries and claims of winning the war against pests. The
chronic effects that mattered were sidelined and so was the issue that the
evolution of pesticide-resistant pests was accompanied by a simultaneous
increase in pesticide use. This is of no major concern to the MNCs which on
having invested such large amounts, consolidated their gains during the
last half century to remain in business.

85,000 chemicals were registered with the Environmental Protection Agency
for commercial use in America although almost 99% of them did not exist
before World War II. None of the thousands of chemicals were tested for
their effect on mankind. In a rush to develop and incorporate new chemicals
adequate testing was left behind. Only about 43% of the roughly 3,000 high-
production-volume chemicals are estimated to have been tested by 1998.
Thousands of chemicals were commercialized without adequately testing them.
The number of children that paid a price for getting rid of lead in
gasoline must be in millions and those who have died as a result of use of
untested industrial chemicals that did not even exist a half-century ago
will never be known.

Pesticides are widely used for non-agricultural as well as agricultural
purposes. Pesticides include chemicals applied to prevent, control, or
destroy destructive pests and disease causing microbes. These pest control
chemicals are integral tools of modern agriculture (Jennings, 1991).
Pesticides are directed toward the control of bacteria, fungi, insects,
rodents, nematodes, roundworms, and weeds. Pesticides are also used in
disinfectants, fumigants, and plant growth regulators. Biological control
agents must also be registered as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act as amended, known as FIFRA. Some of the
bacteria and fungi that attack food plants and their harvests actually
produce detectable levels of potent toxins and carcinogens if not held in
check by pesticide action. For example, fungal aflatoxins are a food
contaminant and risk because of their well-documented potency as liver
carcinogens (Busby and Wogan, 1984; Wogan, 1992). Aflatoxin producing fungi
are effectively controlled by fungicidal action.

A dramatic rise in U.S. food and fibre production occurred during the
1950's and 1960's. Compared with most other countries, Americans enjoy a
highly varied diet of reasonably priced food. The American food industry
claims and is supported by the government agencies in making the claims,
that its food supply is among the safest and most abundant in the world and
pesticides are one of the important tools that have made that abundance
possible. But there is a common and growing perception by the public that
the American food is not as wholesome as desired and as claimed because of
pesticide residues. This will be discussed in a subsequent chapter on Case
History of the Disasters of Pesticide Usage.

Pesticide usage in the USA has been relatively stable at about 0.5 million
tons of active ingredients during recent years. Pesticide use increased
steadily throughout the 1960s and 1970s, primarily because of herbicide
applications. Recently, this trend has slowed due to the introduction of
more potent pesticides, more efficient pesticide usage, and lower farm
commodity prices. The estimates for U.S. pesticide user expenditures
totaled about $8.5 billion in 1993, and $8.2 billion in 1992.

Of the 0.5 million tons of active ingredient used as conventional
pesticides, there are about 21,000 pesticide products and 860 active
ingredients registered in the USA under federal pesticide law. Twenty new
active ingredients were registered for use as pesticides under FIFRA in
1993, and 11 in 1992 (Aspelin, 1994). If wood preservatives and
disinfectants are included, total U.S. pesticide usage in 1993 was about
1.0 million tons of active ingredients.

It is an abhorrent practice for US pesticide manufacturers to export
illegal dangerous pesticides to other countries, knowing that no
regulations exist in those countries. This should be considered a crime
against mankind.

The World Health Organization estimates that all of the 220,000 annual
pesticide related deaths occur in the developing countries, where 80
percent of the world production of pesticides is used. Agricultural workers
are rarely, if ever, given sufficient information on the risks involved and
thus do not take proper protective measures when using pesticides.
Pesticide poisoning is thirteen times higher for Latin American workers
than for US workers. The data for Pakistan and India would suggest many
times more since the lack of information at the grass root level is so
tragically suppressed that the sprayman who may look diseased and may be
diseased does not admit that he was coughing due to suffocation in an
environment of deadly methyl parathion. Each year there are tens of
thousands of farmers intoxicated during the sowing and early spray periods
and a similar number of women suffer during the cotton picking stage.



Pesticides are in fact the potentially toxic chemicals that have helped the
industrialized countries win wars. In crop production they have worked as a
tool to obtain the surplus food supply that allows them to dictate terms
and/or use food as a tool to oblige and then subjugate other economies,
mostly developing. The abundant food supply in Australia, Canada and USA
has enabled each of them to attain high standard of living which may not
have been possible without fertilizers and pesticides. Pesticides have on
the other hand done such immense damage to the living environment that many
people around the world are led to believe that they are potentially
dangerous to man and the living environment. There is so much concern about
the consequences of their usage that it will be in public interest that
facts are made known to the people in general and knowledgeable people i.e.
opinion makers in particular. The origin, chemical classification,
toxicology and health impact along with the risk and benefits from their
usage, and the regulatory process adopted by governments to regulate their
trade and use should be made public. With the provision of all the relevant
information and fact sheets, it should be possible for the public to draw
its own conclusions. The detailed information should be used as the basis
for formulation of pesticide policies.

The damages done to the environment are real and the benefits from their
usage in Pakistan and other countries, which do not themselves produce them
are outweighed by risks involved in doing so. The growing concern about the
risks has a number of decision makers wondering if a total ban on use of
pesticides and the chemicals should be imposed. However, it is a fact that
termites are hard to exterminate without chemicals that are highly toxic,
and so are the fleas in carpets, mold in vegetables, toxins in food. The
risks of food shortage and soaring prices are imminent, and outbreaks of
long-forgotten diseases are quite certain.

The risks of pesticides as poisons and hazardous chemicals are real and
several agencies in the industrialized countries themselves are working to
inform the government agencies about the dangers and about the damages
already done by scores of chemicals and are also constantly reducing the
risk of using pesticides by producing "safer" chemicals, pest-specific
pesticides, better application methods, and tougher pesticide laws.
Indiscriminate use of pesticides continues and accidents involving
pesticides are occurring with the earlier frequency. And even when used
correctly, some pesticides can harm the environment and non-targeted living
organisms. The risks and benefits of pesticides usage are both real and
therefore utmost caution is needed to improve pest control methods.

There are a number of ways by which, crops and mammals can be protected
against the attack of insects, fungi and weeds. The use of agro-chemicals
has proved very effective in the control of pests and several plant
diseases. All pesticides have to be potentially toxic chemicals in order to
be effective on the pests. Whatever is toxic to pests is also toxic to the
humans and the living environment. These chemicals have toxicity of the
highest degree. It is in the toxic nature of these compounds that the risks
are heavy, but they have to be weighed against the benefits they render. It
is essential to contain the impact of these substances within the area of
application. The long term effect of pesticides is such as to reduce the
life span of a person exposed to the risk by periods ranging from a few
days to a few years.

The entire chain of chemicals used in the manufacturing process of the
pesticides, in their formulations, and application in the field, are
reactive by nature and hence toxic to human health and the environment,
with their toxicity varying only in degree. Their selection for use in crop
protection has to be judicious otherwise they can be catastrophic.
Catastrophes, which have taken the toll of several lives, are only too
numerous. They have occurred during the manufacturing process e.g. in
Bhopal, in the application on the field e.g. the herbicides in Vietnam and
during the sprayings e.g. application of Malathion in Pakistan. A number of
these chemicals e.g. DDT are proved carcinogens while there are others,
which are candidates in the list of carcinogenic and teratogenic compounds.
They have been creating hazards through their entry into the air, water
bodies or the food chain and have been causing occupational and
environmental health hazards.

Pests account for 35% of the crop losses. There is therefore a need to
protect the crops from the pests. In trying to protect the crop from the
pests by using pesticides, which as just stated have to be potentially
toxic, immense damage is being done to the human as well as animal health
and the environment. A cautious estimate suggests 375,000 sufferings in
Pakistan are due to pesticide poisoning resulting from direct use or
contact or indirect use e.g. contamination of food or the food chain.

It is known that white fly serves as the vector of the leaf curl disease.
It is felt that the white fly should be eliminated. However, it is also
being felt and increasingly so that the indiscriminate and unsystematic use
of pesticides is equally responsible for contributing to the virulence of
the disease which has been playing havoc on the cotton crop in Pakistan. An
aspect that bothers the cotton croppers is that the white fly has become
immune to the pesticides. It has been reported that there are over 500
pests that have developed resistance to pesticides. Some of those for which
resistance has been noted are cypermethrin and monocrotophos. Use of
pesticides has also brought about resurgence of pests, outbreak of
secondary pests as well as destruction of beneficial species, including
predators and parasites.

The Chemical era did, at its very inception, revolutionize agriculture in
many different ways. Application of marketing forces to trade and
application of pesticides on crops led to excessive use of some potentially
toxic chemicals. In order to get the desired results in crop protection and
production, their unforeseen impact were not given due consideration and
that brought disrepute to many of them. The problem was aggravated by the
disposal of toxic wastes, which accompany each process of chemical
production. The US Department of Agriculture and the countries faced with
the menace of pests destroying the crops and affecting the health of people
were, in 1952 eulogizing the virtues and advantages of chemicals in crop
protection and in enhancing agricultural production.

Just when farmers and the public were getting accustomed to the lower
toxicity of the chlorinated hydrocarbons and were beginning to forget the
high toxicity of the arsenicals and dinitro compounds used before the war,
the new organophosphate and carbamate insecticides were introduced and the
attitude of the users changed. The organophosphates are much more acutely
toxic than the chlorinated hydrocarbons. All organophosphates inhibit the
activity of cholinesterase, and the regulation of nerve transmission in the
body. The result as observed on experimental animals is over stimulation of
the nervous system; they cannot run, they cannot walk, they cannot breathe
and that is the way the pests are killed. With the introduction of these
compounds in the early 1950s, a sudden surge of pesticide poisonings
occurred. The consequence was that pesticide poisonings increased for a few
years in the early 1950s. When farmers and the public became aware of the
hazards of the new pesticides and began to take precautions, incidents of
poisoning dropped back to a lower level. The long term health hazards took
a little more time for emergence, however.

Farmers, foresters, and public health officials had been spraying DDT
across the country to control pests such as Mexican boll weevils, gypsy
moths, and suburban mosquitoes since the 1940s. The publication of the
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962 denounced the gains of the
pesticides in general but DDT in particular. It warned the producers of the
consequences of the use of pesticides which have the capacity to poison the
food supply of animals and to kill birds and aquatic animals in addition to
contaminating the food supply to large section of human users. It was this
initiative that has moved the chemical industry to regulate its stance on
production of pesticides with appropriate assessment of the impact on
health of the user and consumer to avert massive degradation of the
environment. The book had a devastating effect on the marketing and use of
pesticides, particularly DDT. By 1968 several states in the USA had banned
the use of DDT. Public pressure was so high on the US EPA, established in
1968, that the marketing forces could not work and DDT had to be banned in
USA in 1972.

The claimed success in application of pesticides in farming, if accepted,
is at enormous costs and sacrifice of environmental values. Pesticides
brought only short term gains. Recent studies and the several case
histories do not support the views that the benefits from pesticides
outweigh the damages done to humanity and the environment. Pesticides,
particularly DDT saved the lives of millions by preventing the population
from contracting malaria, bubonic plague and typhus since the late 1940s.
That, however, was short term gain. Now people are scared of its
persistence and scourge of cancer. The forceful lobby of the manufacturers
led the users to believe that pesticides work faster and are more effective
than the alternatives. This is no longer true; their application even at
very low concentration compared to the older products, does more harm than
the latter.

What has happened despite the strong lobby of the agribusiness, which has
been producing around 40 times more pesticides since their introduction 50
years back, is that the insects did not stop breeding nor were they
exterminated. Contrarily they quickly developed resistance to the
insecticides. Additionally, broad-spectrum pesticides killed natural
predators, which are useful in keeping the pests at bay. The present
position is that while the use of synthetic pesticides, which include
insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, and others has
increased more than 40 fold in the last half century, the food supply lost
to pests in the USA has according to estimates ironically increased to 37%
as of now, compared with 31% in the 1940s (i Pimental, David, et al. 1992.
Environmental and Economic Cost of Pesticide Use, BioScience, Vol.
42,No.10, 750-60 Pimental, David and Hugh Lehman, eds. 1993. The Pesticide
Question: Environmental, Economics and Ethics. New York : Chapman & Hall).
Total crop losses from insect damage alone have nearly doubled from 7% to
13% during that period. This is regardless of the consumption of around 75%
of the pesticides in USA on cultivation of the four main crops viz.
soybeans, wheat, cotton and corn.

Despite the warnings by Carson, MNCs engaged in chemicals and
pharmaceuticals production consolidated their hold during the chemical era
through forceful marketing of pesticides. The warnings could not restrain
the emergence of new chemical manufacturers all over the industrialized
world and also did not constrain them from producing pesticides that were
not registered or banned. The MNCs operated through their subsidiaries in
the developing and underdeveloped countries for the sale of their products.
Pesticides manufactured in donor countries were supplied under financing
through aid and also by the government sponsored finance and insurance
agencies such as the US sponsored Eximbank and the OPIC. This secured the
status of the MNCs and other chemical manufacturers, besides allowing them
a free hand in marketing products that were not registered or were even
banned for use in the exporting country.

The MNCs have their own trait of marketing through massive advertising.
They had a role in aggressively promoting the sale and use of pesticides in
developing countries. This was, however, without observing the simple norms
and code of conduct that whatever is banned for usage in their own country
should not be offered for use in a developing country. So strong is the
lobby of the MNCs that it has found its way through into working in close
collaboration with the UN Agency, FAO in matters of their interest in
agriculture.

Industry Cooperative Programme, the organization of agribusiness
corporations had a direct involvement in FAO for 12 years from 1966. Their
efforts at making the developing countries dependent on the indiscriminate
application of pesticides supplied by them is one of the distinct ways of
inducing social pollution to which developing countries are silent
spectators. In this game of inducing social pollution, the international
banks, government agencies of the industrialized countries and MNCs are
equal partners and ensure that corporate investments are secure.

Led by public pressure in the USA the use of pesticides is now being
condemned all over in the industrialized countries because of the risks of
exposure to health of the workers and the non-agricultural users. The
health of workers and children has been of great concern after the
publication of Silent Spring. Public pressure on the Government was
effective in getting DDT banned in the USA in 1972. The same kind of
pressure is now being exerted on the use of pesticides being applied on
lawns and on those traded and exported to developing countries. Several
groups are actively engaged in the industrialized countries to bring in a
total change and switch over to safe alternatives. The marketing forces
that are there to keep the enterprise active have, however, the backing of
the governing hierarchies of the country as well as that of the
multilateral financial institutions on their side.

The realization that the above forces of marketing are inducing the use of
pesticides on their crops has yet to come among the decision makers in
developing countries. The pesticides have to be applied here in realization
that if the pests attack can render a whole population hungry it would be
better to kill the pests by all means. Cotton crop failure due to pest
attack has been occurring in Pakistan since 1992 but it was worst in 1994.
The damage done by the cotton leaf curl virus to the economy of the country
was of the order of over Rs 50 billion during the last few years. Cotton is
the mainstay of the economy of the country and the crop was saved using the
deadliest poisons, particularly because there was no other alternative. It
is known that the pesticides are poisons and also that each sowing season
and the following three months require spraying that intoxicates thousands
of agricultural workers. It is also known that a similar number of women
cotton pickers suffer from pesticide related diseases after the male labour
force has been through the ordeal.

The feudal system, poverty and pressure of salesmanship induced by the MNCs
are the components of social pollution that do not allow any priority
consideration of the negative impact of pesticide usage in the developing
countries.

The dependence on chemical pesticides introduced a new health hazard, which
has been there to stay ever since World War II. This has had serious
negative impact on modern agriculture, public health, and pest control of
household as well as lawns and home gardens, public parks, along highways
and public thoroughfares. Most pesticides produce little risk when used
according to label directions. However, some are extremely toxic and
require special precautions. No new technology for crop protection has been
able to replace the chemical pesticides but that is no reason to continue
with use of poisons. In the event of incidences of massive poisoning by
them and the hazard of pesticide related illnesses growing with every
passing day, as will be apparent from the following sections, alternatives
already available need to be adopted.

In order to reduce the serious negative impact of the use of pesticides, an
integrated pest management, IPM is being advocated. This management system
aims at combining biological methods of control with the chemicals and to
use the chemicals only sparingly, or when absolutely necessary. The main
objective of the use of IPM is to utilize all available techniques to
reduce and maintain pest population at levels below those causing injury of
economic importance to agriculture and forestry. One may have to wait for
about a decade for the symptoms of impact of chronic toxicity of the IPM to
emerge. The synergism of toxicology and social pollution will soon bring
about a collapse in the trade in Toxicity.