Attitudes of Agricultural Researchers vs. Farm Operators with Respect to Risks of Pesticide Use. Erik Lichtenberg, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, U. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, erikl@arec.umd.edu; and Rae Zimmerman, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, 4 Washington Square North, NY, NY 10003 (e-mail: zimmrmnr@is2.nyu.edu)
Both agricultural researchers and farm operators play important roles in determining pesticide usage patterns and the risks arising from those usage patterns. Once pesticides are registered for use, the application of pesticides by farm operators is largely unregulated, and is a function of a variety of factors related to the farm operator’s experiences and predilections, including attitudes about the environment in general and pesticides in particular. Agricultural researchers play an important role in pesticide application decisions as advisors to farm operators. They also play important roles in shaping public policy responses to pesticide related risks, for example, in formulating cooperative extension outreach programs or in providing estimates of benefits and costs of potential regulatory actions to agencies like EPA, whose policies ultimately influence pesticide use decisions. Attitudes of farm operators and agricultural researchers were drawn from a population of 2,700 corn and soybean growers in MD, NY, and PA and a random sample of agricultural researchers in a half a dozen states bordering the three states from which operators were drawn. Farmers and researchers were asked how serious they thought various water-related environmental issues and pesticide-related related illnesses and injuries were. Other attitudes were measured as well. The attitude structure of both populations were compared as a function of their experiences in farming and demographic characteristics.
This work is supported by a grant to New York University from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development.