EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
Dear colleagues, the disease has represented a for safer, more environmentally-
major boon for the crop protection friendly pesticides, which they
Although variations in fiscal years industry, with a number of then set about developing. The
mean that there is always some companies specifically attributing result was the pyrethroid and
crop protection company reporting strong sales growth to Asian neonicotinoid insecticides that
its results, there does recently soybean rust. have gradually replaced the older,
seem to have been a spate of highly toxic organochlorine and
companies announcing their half- But although it does seem unfair organophosphorus insecticides.
yearly results. And this has once for major multinational companies
again highlighted a peculiar trait to benefit from the plight of poor But couldn’t these novel pesticides
of the crop protection industry: its farmers, profit-making companies be developed by not-for-profit
propensity to make explicit the link are actually best placed to develop enterprises or state-funded
between its financial health and the crop protection products that institutes, which could then sell
the plight of its main customers. these farmers desperately need. the pesticides at a lower cost
Indeed, crop protection companies Altruism may be nobler, but it isn’t because they wouldn’t need to
often seem to welcome devastating able to respond to farmers’ needs make a profit? Well they haven’t
disease outbreaks and pest as quickly as the profit motive. been so far. Novel pesticides cost
infestations as positive business a great deal of time and money to
developments. The case of Asian soybean rust in develop and register (8–10 years
Brazil illustrates this point. The and $180–220 million) and only
For example, in the past few recent outbreaks acted as a rapidly major multinational crop protection
weeks, we have seen Syngenta expanding market, which crop companies really have the
attributing growth in fungicide protection companies were quick to resources to do that. And they only
sales to “high disease pressure” enter. They did this by developing have those resources because of
in Latin America and Cheminova new fungicide products and the profits they have made on their
blaming poor insecticide sales registering and marketing some existing pesticide products.
in the US on low rates of insect of their existing fungicides for use
infestation. Now this kind of thing against the disease. For example, Up to now, practically every
doesn’t seem to happen in other Arysta LifeScience developed the pesticide active ingredient has
chemical industries. You don’t see fungicide Eminent (tetraconazole), been developed by a profit-driven
pharmaceutical companies linking while Dow AgroSciences found company. No other economic set-
sales growth to higher rates of that its triazole fungicide Laredo/ up has come close to developing
heart disease or bemoaning the Systhane (myclobutanil) provided as many useful pesticides. Only
effect of government health drives effective control. now is China beginning to develop
on their profits. novel active ingredients (see page
Thoughts of increased revenue may 15) and this is mostly coming about
While some may see this as an have been the main motivating as a result of its embrace of free
example of admirable honesty factor behind these moves. But enterprise over the past 10 years.
on the part of the crop protection the fact of the matter is that it
industry, which clearly does benefit quickly got much-needed pesticide So perhaps it is best to be upfront
financially from disease and pest products to farmers and helped to about the link between the fortunes
outbreaks. Others will simply see mitigate the effects of the disease. of the crop protection industry and
an industry gloating over the fact The invisible hand of the market the misfortunes of farmers. For
that it profits from the misfortune once again worked its magic. the profit-motive and the invisible
of others, including many poor hand of the market have generally
farmers in the developing world. Indeed, the profit motive has been provided great benefits to both
behind practically all the major farmers and the environment in
Over the past few years, Asian advances in crop protection. After general. But it does still seem a bit
soybean rust has had a devastating complaining long and loud about insensitive to crow about the link
affect on the Brazilian soybean Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (see when reporting financial results.
crop, with the fungal disease Agrow Magazine, September 2007,
infecting almost 100% of the crop p 8), the pesticide industry came Jon Evans
and costing farmers over US$2,000 to terms with the book by noting Contributing Editor
million in 2005/06. In contrast, the resultant growth in the market Agrow Magazine
www.agrow.com  •   October 2007 
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