CPRI: Research Briefs

Crop Protection Research Institute Research Briefs are a regular series of papers that discuss aspects of pesticide use and pest management in United States crop production. These briefs are designed to be educational and accessible and address topics of timely import and general interest.

Pesticides and Humanity: The Benefits of Using Pesticides
Recently the CropLife Foundation assembled a database of articles documenting the benefits of crop protection (CP) products worldwide. This database has been extensively used in the CP industry and academic world as a goto resource for information on CP products. Of the reports written using this database, the largest and most in-depth was written by Jerry Cooper and Hans Dobson of the Natural Resources Institute. This report was entitled "Pesticides and Humanity: The Benefits of Using Pesticides." You can download the full report here. You can also preview it by downloading their summary article, "The Benefits of Pesticides to Mankind and the Environment" here.

You may also explore the Foundation's CP Benefit database here.

USDA 2008 National Organic Production Survey: National Acreage and Crop Yields
As a follow-on to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) conducted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s first in-depth survey of organic farming in the United States. The 2008 Organic Production Survey counted 14, 540 organic farms and ranches in the U.S., comprising 4.1 million acres of land of which 1.6 million acres consisted of harvested cropland.

The CropLife Foundation has analyzed this data in order to compare organic production data vs. conventional crop production. The foundation determined that crop yields for organically grown fruit, field crops, and vegetables were on average about 30-38% less. For the full results and analysis visit our page here.

An Evaluation of Pesticide Use Reduction Policies in Scandinavia
Beginning in 1986, the governments of two Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Denmark, adopted policies mandating reductions of 50% or more in the total use of agricultural pesticides. The Netherlands also adopted a mandatory reduction policy. Activist groups claim that these policies have worked and have urged European Union-wide policy support for similar programs. The US has shown some interest in adopting mandatory reduction policies with bills proposed at the national and state levels. Some analysts have suggested that the European initiatives may be “handwriting on the wall” for future policy directions in the United States

Because of the continuing interest in mandatory pesticide
use reduction policies in the EU and the United States, the
CropLife Foundation (CLF) undertook a study to compare the effectiveness of mandatory use reduction by comparing two countries that have reduction policies (Denmark and Sweden) against two that do not (Finland and Norway).

CLF set out to answer three questions in the Study:

• What quantitative changes have occurred in pesticide
use in Scandinavian countries since 1980?
• To what extent were the quantitative changes due to
use reduction policies?
• What are the latest quantitative trends in pesticide use
in Scandinavia?

You may view the full published study here.

Why California Organic Growers Want an Exemption from a Farm Worker Protection Rule
On October 8, 2004 the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board adopted an emergency regulation banning unnecessary hand weeding of crops by agricultural workers because of the substantial risk of back injury incurred while hand weeding. This emergency regulation is to be followed with a permanent rule. Certified organic growers are exempted from the rule.

The Crop Protection Research Institute has prepared an analysis of the California hand weeding ban’s exemption for organic agriculture which, for the first time, quantifies the amount of hand weeding that organic growers use and the economic benefits that accrue to organic growers as a result of the exemption. The study calculates the economic benefits to organic growers of the hand weeding exemption as $24 million with the utilization of 775,000 hours of hand weeding exempted from the rulemaking.

Why California Organic Growers Want an Exemption from a Farm Worker Protection Rule (PDF) 1-19-05

Press Release: Why California Organic Growers Want an Exemption from a Farm Worker Protection Rule (PDF) 1-19-05

Reference #4. Bolgenholm, Vanessa, The Use and Importance of Handweeding in Organic Farming, letter to Jose H. Millan, Deputy Secretary, Enforcement, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, 2004.

The Outsourcing of Organic Crop Production
Much has been written recently about the “outsourcing” of United States jobs to foreign countries due to lower labor costs abroad. Millions of jobs in textile manufacturing and in computer systems have moved off shore resulting in increased importation of foreign goods and services. U.S. labor rates are often cited as being ten times higher than the wages in most developing countries. It should come as no surprise that the production of organic crops is also being outsourced to countries such as Mexico, where the cost of farm labor is $1-2/hour.

CPRI's Research Brief #2 discusses the factors that limit domestic organic production and facilitate increased importation of organic crops. One of the major factors is the organic prohibition on herbicide use for weed control. Without herbicides, organic growers need to use a substantial amount of labor for killing weeds. This labor is much less expensive on organic farms in Mexico.

The Outsourcing of Organic Crop Production (PDF) 1-19-05