ABSTRACT
Much of the increase in global agricultural production over the last few decades has come about through the adoption of high-input farming systems. Pesticides are one of the most important components of high-input farming. Now humans have realized the extent to which pests harm crops, cause damage, and transmit diseases to both humans and domestic animals. The use of pesticides to kill pests is not a new concept; about AD 70, Pliny, the elder, recommended that arsenic could be used to kill insects, and the Chinese used arsenic sul de as an insecticide as early as the late sixteenth century. The use of arsenical compounds has continued and, during the early part of the twentieth century, large quantities of compounds such as lead arsenate were used to control insect pests. Another arsenical compound, Paris green (copper aceto-arsenite), was extensively applied to pools and standing water in the tropics in an attempt to control malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.
