Three Decades of Federal Integrated Pest Management Policy

The scientific and technical development of integrated pest management* (IPM) methods during the twentieth century were covered by several publications of the 1990s [1-4], but the policy aspects of IPM have received less attention. This is unfortunate, because policy and politics have been as much a part of the history of IPM in the United States as the science. This chapter provides a summary of the major policy considerations that shaped federal IPM programs over the last three decades of the century.