ABSTRACT
Over the past four decades, scientists and the public at large have become increasingly aware of the risks that balance the benefits from agro-chemicals (van Ravenswaay, 1995). With accelerating momentum, policy makers have responded by enacting measures to protect citizens. Agricultural researchers have followed, seeking to develop non-chemical substitutes for agro chemicals while industry has sought to develop safer chemicals, more narrowly aimed at augmenting agricultural productivity with minimal unwanted side-effects. Agricultural economists have been pushed to abandon some convenient assumptions and to explore how to develop optimal policies and evaluate new technologies when multiple criteria come into play.
