ABSTRACT
Pesticides are undoubtedly beneficial to agricultural production. Lomberg (2001) stated that ‘if pesticides were abolished, the lives saved would be outnumbered by a factor of around 1000 by lives lost due to poorer diets’. Primary benefits of pesticides include increases in yield due to decreased pest losses, while their secondary benefits include reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, for example, herbicides are less energy intensive then mechanical cultivation (Cooper and Dobson, 2007). Nevertheless, public perception of pesticides and pesticide residues is poor, with many groups surveyed overestimating the risk posed by pesticides (Hibbitt, 1990). This perception has continued into the twenty-first century as consumers have become increasingly aware of food safety issues following a number of high-profile ‘food scares’ related to traceability, bacterial contamination and pesticide usage.
