Would banning atrazine benefit farmers?. (January 2014)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Would banning atrazine benefit farmers?. (January 2014)
- Main Title:
- Would banning atrazine benefit farmers?
- Authors:
- Ackerman, Frank
Whited, Melissa
Knight, Patrick - Abstract:
- Abstract : Atrazine, an herbicide used on most of the US corn (maize) crop, is the subject of ongoing controversy, with increasing documentation of its potentially harmful health and environmental impacts. Supporters of atrazine often claim that it is of great value to farmers; most recently, Syngenta, the producer of atrazine, sponsored an "Atrazine Benefits Team" (ABT) of researchers who released a set of five papers in 2011, reporting huge economic benefits from atrazine use in US agriculture. A critical review of the ABT papers shows that they have underestimated the growing problem of atrazine-resistant weeds, offered only a partial review of the effectiveness of alternative herbicides, and ignored the promising option of non-chemical weed management techniques. In addition, the most complete economic analysis in the ABT papers implies that withdrawal of atrazine would lead to a decrease in corn yields of 4·4% and an increase in corn prices of 8·0%. The result would be an increase in corn growers' revenues, equal to US$1·7 billion annually under ABT assumptions. Price impacts on consumers would be minimal: at current levels of ethanol production and use, gasoline prices would rise by no more than US$0·03 per gallon; beef prices would rise by an estimated US$0·01 for a 4-ounce hamburger and US$0·05 for an 8-ounce steak. Thus withdrawal of atrazine would boost farm revenues, while only changing consumer prices by pennies.
- Is Part Of:
- International journal of occupational and environmental health. Volume 20:Number 1(2014)
- Journal:
- International journal of occupational and environmental health
- Issue:
- Volume 20:Number 1(2014)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 20, Issue 1 (2014)
- Year:
- 2014
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2014-0020-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 61
- Page End:
- 70
- Publication Date:
- 2014-01
- Subjects:
- Agriculture, -- Atrazine, -- Corn, -- Economic impacts, -- Herbicides, -- Weed management
Industrial hygiene -- Periodicals
Industrial toxicology -- Periodicals
Environmental health -- Periodicals
Consumer goods -- Health aspects -- Periodicals
613 - Journal URLs:
- https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/yjoh20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1179/2049396713Y.0000000054 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1077-3525
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 14500.xml