ABSTRACT
This chapter captures the farmers as decision-makers in a bind, which three factors have created and reinforced over time. One is a clear division of responsibilities between the farmers and the medical and other professionals. The professionals see their responsibility fulfilled when they warn risks involved in the use of chemicals. On the other hand, the farmers, the least informed of scientific knowledge, are left only with their experiential knowledge in deciding to, or not to, heed the warnings. Another factor is the insufficient medical services within the farmers’ reach. That second factor broadens the area where the farmers’ experiential knowledge dictates the farmers’ decision-making. The chapter calls attention to one problem attendant upon this division of responsibilities. The professionals’ assumption, that health should consume the resources and demands of farmers’ life, is a third factor which multiplies the burden of the final decision-making on the farmers to whom life consists of many demands, of which health is but one.
