ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyses the various political questions that surround the use and production of pesticide chemicals. It follows the norms that are influential in determining the behaviour of the actors involved in international pesticide politics. After adopting a suitable definition of a norm, a concept more frequently used in sociology and anthropology, we will see that there are seven that play a part in this political arena. The book demonstrates the existence of an international norm, by looking how actor behaviour relates to the particular prescription or proscription. Concern over the potential dangers inherent in the capacity of pesticide residues to remain in foodstuffs long after application heralded the phenomenon of organic farming and consumer group activity. The development of pest control history occurred with the creation of synthetic organic pesticides during the Second World War.
