Paying the price

About this book

This book documents the widespread subsidization of pesticides that pose significant health risks, both in developed and developing countries. It maintains that such risks represent an externalized cost, in economi terms, which is borne not solely by the pesticide user but also by food consumers, agricultural laborers and people (and animals) incidentally exposed. The book argues that such "externalities" justify that pesticides be taxed, not subsidized, in order to align pesticide users private costs with broader social costs. It is one of the first analyses of "perverse subsidies", which unfortunately are widespread.