Globalization of Corruption with Changes in World Economic OrderMirza Arshad Ali Beg

Former Director General (P&D) PCSIR136-C, Rafahe Aam Housing Society, Malir Halt, Karachi-75210

arshadalibeg@gmail.comAdded: 2015-05-06 T 21:30:26 UTCDOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2290.8321

AbstractThe course adopted for development by industrialized countries of the CPI Group (ii) has given rise to a rat race all over the less developed world to achieve a better quality of life. The end of 3rd change in economic order saw unprecedented gains in many indicators that are used for making estimates on progress in human development, for example life expectancy, per capita income, education and rate of growth of population. This has intensified consumerism and large scaleadoption of processes, technologies and lifestyle of the industrialized countries, which in turn has polluted the social fabricor has caused social pollution to take deep roots. Social pollution intaking different forms and shape is largely responsible for the disparity in incomes between the rich and poor within nations and between wealthy and poor nations.

Historically social pollution syndrome has worked its way through transfer of technologies discarded by industrialized countries to developing countries. They are strongly recommended for grounding by the governing hierarchy of the industrial economies and have in the past come under food aid or as embodied technologies. It is feared that the story with respect to the chemicals will be repeated and developing countries will be silent spectators to phenomena of structural adjustment.

Perpetuation of hunger is the tool of social pollution that favours the corporate sector to remain in crop production and food industry. Hunger is the type of social pollution, which whenimposed takes away the ability to think, to perform normal physical actions, and to be a rational human being. This form of social pollution has its linkage with poverty. Of the 830 millionhungry people worldwide, about 250 million live in India but the socially diseased Indian governing hierarchy did not distribute the surplus 10 million tons of food grains in 1999 to alleviate poverty. The surplus increased in the year 2000 to 60 million

tons, most of which was allowed to rot in the granaries in the hope of exporting the commodity.

Stresses of poverty have been induced in developing countries byimpoverishment of resources including land, man power, and primaryproducts. Poverty doubled from 17.3% in 1987-88 to 32.6% in 1998-99.The household income of the lowest quintile or 20% of the populationremained static during the last 50 years at around 7%. It was 6.4% in1963-64 and after touching 8.4% a year later, came to 7% in 1996-97.The income of the middle 60% dropped from 48.3% to 43.6% in the meantime. The share of the top quintile, however, rose from 45.3% to49.4%, suggesting the creation of a wide gap between the top quintile,which monopolized half the income and the bottom quintile that had toremain contented with a meagre 7% of the total income.

By the end of July 2000 the number of people living below the povertyline in Pakistan had shot up four times in two decades as a result ofpersistent decline in economic growth caused by the gradual depletionof resourcefulness resulting from absence of good governance of thesystem of distribution of resources, misappropriation of nationalwealth and operation of the forces of social pollution. Poverty wasestimated by the Centre for Human Development to be afflicting 40% in1998 as against 21.2% in 1980-81, 28.6% in 1986-87and 35.9% in 1992-93. A projection of these figures to the present situation which ispainted with gloom, suggests that the poverty line has dragged 10 to12% more people from the lower middle class and it stands at above55%. Development activities were obviously too inadequate to improvethe quality of life and the basket of basic needs comprising food,clothing, shelter, healthcare, education, transport, potable water andenergy was exhausted and could not be made available to a majorsection of population.

In contrast with impoverishment, the consumption of natural resourcesby modern industrial economies remained very high at 45 to 85 metrictons per person annually when all materials, including soil erosion,mining wastes, and other ancillary materials are taken intoconsideration. Use of high volume of materials indicates how resourceintensive are the technologies developed to meet the needs of theenjoy-the-richness syndrome of the industrialized countries that areplaced in group (ii) of the CPI ranking/social pollution order,besides suggesting the massive environmental degradation resultingfrom them.

The application of agrochemicals on crop for protection as well as production has had serious negative impact on the physical and human environment. Initially the accidents due to use of chemicals in crop protection and production did not matter since the tragedies such as the killing and intoxication of spraymen in Pakistan in 1976 and the Bhopal MIC leakage in 1984 were reported from the developing countries. They have now become very important since the negative impact on health is being reported from the manufacturing countries. Reports of damages done to the environment are now pouring in incessantly from America and the industrialized countries.

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INTRODUCTION

The First major Change in World Economic Order occurred with theindustrial revolution in the mid 19th century and was followed bychemical revolution that caused the transition in living from naturalto artificial. It changed the basic mode of production of goods andservices and started changing the lifestyle. The revolutions werecomprehensively translated by the then industrializing countries forvalue addition of their products, for achieving superiority in tradeand in weapons for waging wars and winning them.

It all began with the 20th century when the countries, which initiatedthe changes or were associated with them, used chemicals along withconventional weapons to attain supremacy over those who lacked thecapability. The spillover of World War I induced the Second Change inWorld Economic Order and set pace to a mechanical age that set off thechemical revolution and initiated the development of artificialproducts substituting natural materials including agricultural andfood products. Mechanical operations and chemical processes wereintegrated into the mass production system, which started replacingthe craft system and thus rendering a series of well establishedtraditional production lines obsolete.

Land resources that were initially being developed with animal power,yielded to use of mechanized implements. Agricultural practices of thepast were seriously modified; agricultural implements, inputs andtechnologies that were otherwise available from the local environmentwere sidelined or transferred to lower ecosystems. The desired

resources were duly committed from the ecosystem of the colonies, oracquired and distributed according to the demands of processes of anorganized agricultural production in a higher ecosystem. Thesuperiority in technology and quality of its products emerged as thedetermining factor in agriculture and trade.

Modification of the environment to obtain a higher ecosystem yieldthat suited the requirement of the modifiers, was just the beginningof the process of imposing the modification on others in the lowerecosystem to consolidate the gains obtained during the second changein world economic order. The worst was yet to come and it did comeduring World War II when the warring nations made extensive use oftheir mass production system to bulk production of chemicals forwarfare, and atomic power without caring for the long range impact oftheir use on posterity, aiming only at short term gains inoverpowering the enemy.

The upper hand given to them by this second change in economic orderwas instrumental in displacement of traditional methods of production.A new phase emerged when the overrun of the use of chemicals andtechnologies during post-World War II period brought in the ThirdChange in World Economic Order. This third change earned the winnersthe pleasant living and joys of supremacy but broadened the gulfbetween the winners and losers i.e. the rich and poor. It broughtmisery particularly for the poor in the countries, which had beencolonized or were conquered and were not considered trade partners.The overrun was used for maintaining superiority over the lessdeveloped and developing countries and as deterrent on allies as wellas foes during the war. In general the profits of World War II viz.the chemicals and their products were applied for the manufacture of abroad range of consumer items starting from construction materials,wearing apparel, to food and agriculture and replaced scores oftraditional items as well as traditions.

The natural dyes, which were agricultural products until the mid-1930s, became scarce since synthetic dyes became available. Drugs,pharmaceutical products and pesticides were mass produced fromchemicals and the natural products were discredited in theindustrialized countries as being slow in action and import dependent.Availability of products from synthetic chemicals contributed tomechanization of processes and industrialized countries, in havingtaken the lead, started trading in industrial products, plants andmechanical equipment. The lead given by the industrial revolution

aided by chemical revolution carried each industrialized country alongwith enthusiasm and enabled them to enjoy the superiority attained dueto their application.

Until the industrial revolution in the Western countries, the flow oftechnology was from the East to the West and the main contributorswere the established civilizations in the higher ecosystem of theIndus and Nile Valleys. The civilizations that emerged subsequentlywere a result of the will to attain supremacy over the neighbouringcountries and extending their domain to far flung territories, or thewill to migrate. From the early 19th century, there was a reversal ofthe process since the colonialists started forcing their tradingmaterials on the conquered territories. The colonialists had startedharnessing energy from steam during the development processes thatmade the industrialized countries. They subsequently developed theinfrastructure facilities for mechanization of agricultural andindustrial production. They immediately set themselves to qualitycontrolled mass production by machinery and plants, using syntheticchemicals wherever possible. This enabled them to become leaders inindustries, farming, mining, energy and transportation.

The process of technology development and transfer as well as trade ofvalue added products was one sided after the second major change inworld economic order i.e. from the industrialized to the developingcountries. The latter set of countries had been colonized during theperiod in which these developments were taking place. They had toremain mere spectators to the developments and accept the terms oftrade dictated by the colonialists.

The colonies emerged as the developing countries at the end of WorldWar II when the third change in economic order took place. They werestill struggling with harnessing of animal power all through thisperiod. With the onset of the third economic order the people in thecolonies had no option but to silently accept machine made productsmanufactured in the industrialized countries and to adopt thetechnologies developed for crop production, yield enhancement, cropprotection, harvesting, processing, storage etc. without evenmodifying them to make them appropriate to their environment.

Industrial enterprises in the colonies, if there were any, could notface the challenges from changes in the production system and of tradepattern induced by the colonialists in the west. Their traditionalmethods had to yield to the system that was being developed in the

west. The late 19th and early 20th century was witness to learning fromthe western countries and to acquisition of technologies from there.Assembly line production system took roots to which the entrepreneursof the latter set of countries responded positively and accepted thetechnologies and plants that became available in the market. Theentrepreneurship lay in the agro-based industries that neededmachinery for grain processing, cotton ginning, spinning, weaving, oilexpelling, metal working etc. The colonialists in the mean timepromoted the corporate culture and developed an engineering industrybase in a region of their choice only if they had a stronghold and ifit suited them to manufacture the plants and machinery there.

The forces of mechanization and industrialization using man madematerials ruthlessly induced the stress on traditional methods and theserene environment, which the earth initially had and quality of life.These two forces have faltered in direct or obvious and indirect ornot-so-obvious ways and their negative impact has unbalanced manyecosystems making irreversible changes in the habitat and reducing thebiodiversity of the colonies and conquered territories. In their lustfor power and to enjoy better quality of life and affluence theindustrialized countries have reaped rich harvests from the short termpositive impacts in exploiting the resources of the colonies as wellas their own and did not take any account of the consequences of thelong range negative impact of the diverse changes.

SOCIAL POLLUTIONThe process of exploiting others resources is a continuing processwith changing dimensions every so often. During the third change ineconomic order the industrialized countries have geared to differentways of sustaining their superiority in trade, industry, agriculturefood production in addition to weapons. They have, in doing so,induced changes in lifestyle and food habits. They have irresponsiblydegraded the environment of traditional homes, which have had to makeincreasing use of man-made materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals andpesticides. The normal processes of bio-degradation, which degradenatural materials including plant products, have become inoperative inmodifying man-made substances to levels compatible with theenvironment. This has introduced serious modifications in theecosystem and misplaced many of its modifiers and importantcomponents.

Call it induction of social pollution or selfishness or by whatevername, but it is true that the course adopted by the industrializedcountries has given rise to a rat race all over the less developedworld to achieve a better quality of life. The end of the last centurydid see unprecedented gains in many indicators that are used formaking an estimate of the progress in human development, for examplelife expectancy, per capita income, education and rate of growth ofpopulation. This by itself may not be a mean achievement but it hasgiven rise to consumerism and large scale adoption of processes,technologies and lifestyle of the industrialized countries, which inturn has polluted the social fabric or has caused social pollution totake deep roots. Social pollution in taking different forms and shapeis largely responsible for the disparity in incomes between the richand poor within nations and between wealthy and poor nations. Thedisparity has in general continued to widen, meaning that a relativelysmall percentage of the global population and nations controls theeconomic forces and natural resources of the world.

The last half century was the period when the impact of human activityon the physical environment increased dramatically as a result ofincrease in the scope and intensity of the third change in worldeconomic order. This period was witness to many negative trends, suchas loss of tropical forests, accumulation of greenhouse gases in theatmosphere, and appearance of a wide hole in the ozone layer over theAntarctica followed by its widening. It was also the period when theindustrialized countries passed on the evils of social pollution tothe developing countries and had started getting control on theireconomy.

At this stage it will be appropriate to introduce the term socialpollution, which is an act of pollution of the social status of thesocieties by evil forces. These forces act in different ways topollute the physical as well as social environment. They include theprocesses that corrupt groups, societies and countries engaged intrying to establish their superiority over others. They also includetechnology transfer processes used by industrialized countries incorrupting the environment of the developing countries. Deviation ofnational polity from its course of development which is to secure themaximum good for the well being of the maximum people, shows that thegoverning hierarchy of the country is not keeping the greater good ofthe people in mind and hence is practicing double standards ordichotomy. This is a departure from the virtuous circle to viciouscircle and is a gross act of social pollution, which when compounded

by other components of social degeneration viz. VIP culture, cronyism,patronage intrigue, manipulation, dishonesty, and incompetence, candegrade the social environment and sink it into the filth of socialpollution.

Social pollution has largely been induced by the elites of a socialsystem be it the upper stratum of a society or of a nation or onenation over another. Industrialized and industrializing countriesinduce their superiority to gain commercial interests in the poor anddeveloping countries. The multinational corporations MNCs, incollusion with their governments exploit the poor countries and theirmasses and the governing hierarchy of the two sets of countries aidsthis process of exploitation. Such groups are blinded by promises ofluxuries and siphoning of dirty money, and have by promotingcollaboration between the governing hierarchy and MNCs, doneirreversible damages to their country. The collaboration helps thegoverning hierarchy in gaining control by keeping the masseseconomically, politically and socially impoverished and the MNCs aswell as the respective countries in perpetuating their economic andpolitical dominance.

The promised gains of investment have nowhere been realized unless therecipients of capital and technology are from among those at the grassroot level. Capital and technology invested in developing countries byindustrialized countries after World War II hardly made any differenceanywhere unless the country had a system that was vigilant about theevil forces of social pollution. Only a few countries belong to thelatter group and that is why only a tiny minority was able to make itsway unscathed by the temptations of social pollution yet attaining theeconomic and industrial level of the times after World War II. Itmight have made a difference if such countries were in a majority,since they would then be dictating terms to create the circumstancesfor the governing hierarchy to fulfill its constitutionalresponsibility and secure the maximum good for the maximum people.However, the gulf between the industrialized and yet-to-develop ordeveloping countries was so large that safeguards could not beprovided to ensure that the negative forces of social pollution do nottake away the benefits. On the contrary these negative forces wereclaimed as a matter of right by the industrialized countries and theMNCs and in many cases the governing hierarchy, in having becomepartners to the negative forces, could not eradicate the evils ofsocial pollution.

Departure from the virtuous circle is indicated when the dailyperception and experience shows escalation in inefficiency inadministration and when people cannot get their jobs done withoutgiving a bribe in public dealing government offices, ministries anddivisions, and also when dishonest and inefficient managers of theeconomy or the governance system escape with booty amassed duringtheir tenure in office. Social pollution is widespread if thedeparture from the virtuous circle is extensive and can be measuredfrom the index of corruption perception, CPI developed by TransparencyInternational.

Controlling Global Social Pollution Free economies in CPI Group (ii) have successfully democratizedcapitalism globally for an upper hand in World trade. The success wasthe result of endeavours of the last half century, which paid off inthe 1990s, when the trading partners in these countries reaped richharvests from the third change in economic order. With their upperhand in trading, these countries have demanded standardization ofquality of products, environmental protection, human rights etc. andhave constrained the developing countries to open their market. Forthis purpose all the countries of the world have had to lower theirtrade barriers so that goods and services could be sold across theborders without restriction. The credit for this success goes tocountries in group (ii), led by USA, which forced the developingcountries to breach their network.

With corruption rampant all over the world, internationalorganizations, multinational firms, and donors have alreadyinvigorated their efforts to emphasize on ways and means to fightcorruption and to offer aid based on effective reform programmes.Pakistan was once told that almost half of the development budget issiphoned away and even the so-called prestigious Social ActionProgramme (SAP) of $8 billion could not be saved from corruptpractices and gross misappropriation of funds. It is because of theabove reasons that all the international donor agencies have asked theGovernment of Pakistan to effectively check corruption in governmentagencies through good governance.

Fourth Change in Economic OrderThe 1990s were witness to the fourth change in world economic orderwhen i) the world was left with only one super power, ii) application

of information technology, and biotechnology took a leap forward, andiii) low input agricultural initiatives were intensified. Thetechnologies have the potential to create environmental problems ofsoil erosion and wildlife protection, and to raise health concernsbesides environmental contamination associated with the use ofchemicals. They are not without tears and are not accepted by thecountries of their own origin. It may appear from the following thatit is only the induction of social pollution that is helping thechemical and biochemical technologies to remain in market. Chemicalsseem to have done sufficient damage to the environment and the healthof farmer as well as consumer to be phased out in the very near futureor at least not to continue to play a major role in maintaining thefood and fibre supply.

Historically the social pollution syndrome has worked its way throughtransfer of technologies discarded by industrialized countries todeveloping countries. They are strongly recommended for grounding bythe governing hierarchy of the industrial economies and have in thepast come under food aid or as embodied technologies. It is fearedthat the story with respect to the chemicals will be repeated anddeveloping countries will be silent spectators to phenomena ofstructural adjustment.

Agro-Chemicals Industry The crop protection and seeds industries offer products which provideessential support to modern agriculture. Both industries have beenfundamental to the agricultural productivity improvements that haveenabled food production to increase alongside population and economicgrowth. These improvements have come almost entirely from increasingcrop yields. The area of land under cultivation has expanded verylittle in recent years. Crop protection products and seeds are keyagricultural inputs. Demand for them is driven by:

Population growth. Projected growth of approximately 1% a yearover the next 20 years will take the world population from itscurrent level of 6 billion to 7.5 billion by 2020.

Economic growth. As people become wealthier they consume more andhigher-quality food. The International Food Policy ResearchInstitute (IFPRI) forecasts a 40% increase in demand for grain by2020.

Land availability. Arable land is scarce in many parts of theworld and under pressure from urbanization and industrial uses.

Accordingly, there is continual pressure to increase theproductivity of available resources.

Sustainability. Without increases in productivity, more land willhave to be brought under cultivation, with potentially severeadverse impact on the environment.

Technology. Innovations that provide new benefits can spursignificant market growth. These may relate to conventional cropprotection chemicals and seeds, but increasingly derive frombiotechnology, which can both create new opportunities in cropprotection, and confer valuable new traits upon seeds.

Promotion of AgribusinessThe dawn of the fourth change in economic order witnessed theescalation of industrial activities, consolidation of the gains of thethree world economic orders to assume and maintain leadership role bythe industrial economies all over, and their inducement of physicaland social changes in the environment of the developing countries.Industrialized countries of group (ii) in the CPI ranking/socialpollution order have, during the same period, been polluting thephysical and social environment of their own group as well as that ofthe countries in group (iib) and (iii). Additionally they have beencreating scares and then offering a road map to defuse them. They forexample created the scare of population bomb during the first 20 yearsand have tried to defuse it in the next 25 years, by claiming that itwas the pace set by them in voluntarily lowering the birth rate thatresolved the issue. It may be so but the scare prompted theirextensive participation in introduction followed by capturing themarket for vaccines, antibiotics, fertilizers, insecticides, high-yielding variety seeds, contraceptive technology, mass communication,and women's rights, in addition to improvement in water supply,sanitation, and transportation networks. It was thus possible tocontrol the high fertility rates that had led to an annual growthexceeding 3.1%, a rate that doubles population size in 23 years inmany developing nations, declining to 2.0% and decreasing stillfurther to attain zero growth.

Industrialized countries provided domestic support and exportsubsidies for sustenance of their agriculture sector initially in viewof food shortage experienced at the end of World War II, when the useof chemicals and man made materials was introduced extensively inalmost every walk of life and the natural products were ruthlesslysidelined. The respective governments effectively protected the

producers and cared little if the ecosystem of the disadvantageddeveloping countries would be permanently unbalanced. The resultingtechnological developments towards the use and production offertilizers, insecticides, and antibiotics led to the growth andexpansion of industrial agriculture and agribusiness. Developments inthe agriculture sector combined with superiority in trade enabled theagribusiness of USA to export the surplus production at favourableterms and subsequently as food aid that turned out to be a mechanismfor finding new markets in the developing and least developedcountries. This was in total disregard of the interest and need ofbillions of farmers in the latter region.

Agriculture is the mainstay and way of life for a large majority ofpeople in developing countries. They all have more than 50% of thepeople living on the farms, in contrast with the industrializedcountries, which have mechanized their agriculture e.g. EuropeanUnion, EU having 4% and USA with 2% people on the farms. The lowincome developing countries employ 70% of labour force, middle incomecountries employ 30% while high income countries employ only 4%. Theshare of agriculture in GDP as of 1990-96 was 34% for low incomecountries, 8% for middle income and 1.5% for high income countries,while its earning in foreign exchange as of 1995-97 was 34%, 27.3% and8.3% for the three sets of countries respectively. The developing andleast developed countries are at the disadvantage that the yield perhectare is seriously constrained by the high cost and reducedavailability of inputs including water, fertilizer and pesticides andhave to depend on import and aid of inputs as well as food.

When first offered, food aid was confused with charity and hence didnot sound odd. It soon became apparent to the recipients that the aidwas not free but a long handle of social pollution, offered as a loanat low interest rate. When the USA sent wheat to India and Pakistanduring the 1960s, it was under the US PL-480 programme, which requiredthe cost to be paid in rupees and those rupees could be utilizedtowards another project preferably related to agriculture. Indonesiareceived the food aid during the 1999 crisis and that was a loan to bepaid back over a twenty-five-year period. Thus the food aid was a toolof social pollution to help the USA in taking over grain markets inIndia, Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan and elsewhere. The same tool was usedfor achieving political objectives for example in North Korea, wherefamine conditions were deliberately allowed to aggravate so as tobring the country to its knees before food assistance was sent.

The agribusiness enjoys having its handle of social pollution extendedto disbursement of food aid since that is how it sells its productsand cashes on its investment. For business promotion it does not careif it renders a whole community starved. During the famine of the1980s in Somalia and Ethiopia aid of grains arrived on having beenprocured from large MNCs in Canada and America. It was greatdisappointment for the Ethiopian farmers since the grains arrivedafter the rains were over and crops were ready. They were deprived oftheir livelihoods as their produce was dumped in the market at lowprice, and also for the people who were forced to buy imported food athigh price, which not many could pay. What the food aid predominantlydid and keeps doing is to destroy local agricultural infrastructure asits central function. Once the local farmers have been driven out ofbusiness, the people of the region become dependent on the aid donorfor survival.

The story was repeated in Mexico where the agricultural sector wasliberalized under North America Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA. Maize isa source of livelihood for its 3 million people, which accounts for40% of its agriculture sector. US maize is also grown on large farms.A massive influx of US maize often results in large reduction in theprices and the local farmers are in great anxiety. On the other handthere are no input subsidies or government support. Therefore nativefarmers have to face serious problems. They have minimized theirproduction for their domestic need only. Most of the farmers aremigrating to urban areas for employment or planning to sell their landto MNCs on cheap rates.

The case is not much different in Pakistan whose national economydepends largely on its agriculture sector. More than 74% of thepopulation of the country lives in rural areas of which 93% are smallfarmers, with agriculture as their main source of income. Its share inGDP in the year 2001 was 26.4%. These small farmers work withconventional methods of farming. They do not have financial capacityor government support to use new technology for cultivation of theircrops. The small farmers have already had the taste of marginalizationby the food aid and with the disastrous consequences already noted forMexico, they are apprehensive of the trade liberalization inagriculture sector, which because of the structural adjustmentssuggested by IMF, seem to be around the corner.

The industrialized countries, it is apparent from the above cases,have nothing to lose since they are already advanced in their methodsof cultivation and crop yields and with a long handle of socialpollution, they are in a position to dismantle the domestic productionsystem and enhance food insecurity. What has become more disturbing inrecent years is the apprehension that MNCs are determined to increasetheir control over the world supply of food by marketing geneticallyengineered, GE crops and agricultural chemicals, including pesticidesand fertilizers.

Politics of Food Production Food is required for maintaining personal life processes but duringand after World War II it has been used more for gains in trade andpolitics. The French Revolution, for example was not driven just bythe ideals of liberty, freedom, and egalitarianism, but by the factthat there was not enough bread in Paris. There were riots in Peru inthe 1970s because the World Bank had suggested adjustments thatincluded an increase in the price of bread. The Zapatista uprising andthe protests in Bolivia were spurred in the 1990s by food shortagesand privatization of basic necessities of life. The same has been truein Pakistan and India. In 1995, villagers in Mexico stopped trains toloot corn and not gold.

Food riots and famine are, however, not because of crop failure andfood shortage but because of politics of food production, and serve asa fact sheet of social pollution. The fact of the matter is thatglobal food production has always remained generally adequate to meethuman nutritional needs all over. Adequate wheat, rice and othergrains are grown each year to easily feed every human being with 3,500calories a day, much more than the average of 2250 calories requiredfor healthy living. However, since the distribution system has neverbeen equitable, over a quarter of the world population remainsundernourished. Yields of the major grain crops may have enhanced,though not in Pakistan, but post-harvest losses have remained high,soil degradation from erosion and poor irrigation practices havecontinued to harm agricultural lands and have put the productionsystem in developing and least developed countries at risk. Ingeneral, the farming practices have continued to remain resource-inefficient and the industrialized countries, in order to create amarket for their products such as agricultural machinery, pesticidesand fertilizers have been transferring their methods to keep theiragro industries in business.

The USA grows 40% more food every year than it needs. France, Canadaand Australia had increased their net cereal export in 1985-86 by 65%over 1975, while the number of cereal exporting countries in Europeincreased from four to ten during the same period. In the mean timethe net cereal imports increased in all the developing countries. USA,Canada and the European countries were among the largest donors offood during this period. The food surplus countries, however, wouldprefer to offer the surplus in aid rather than making it available tofamine areas on humanitarian grounds, mainly because the latter modeof disbursement requires sharing the surplus with the needy and doesnot bring cash that is needed by the farmer to feed his stomach.Providing food to the hungry is a philosophical and social issue,which from the growers and traders point of view demands that thereshould be more and hungrier people to buy their produce. For the grainexporting industrialized countries it would require that crops shouldfail in grain importing countries so that hunger should perpetuateamong the poor and malnourished majority in the impoverishedcountries.

Feeding the hungry on humanitarian grounds is, according toperformance of agribusiness in USA and other industrialized countries,more a game of politics than a human rights issue. This is why 46% offood aid given in 1985-86 was for sale in the indebted countries fordomestic sale to enable them to earn revenue to meet the adversebalance of payment situation. This is also the reason that countrieslike Indonesia where people do not eat wheat are given wheat in aid.Interestingly 24% of the food aid was given as a component ofagriculture, for rural development and nutrition projects besidescreating food security reserves.

The industrialized countries, their MNCs and the institutions run bythem viz. the IMF and World Bank are the main actors in the game ofpolitics of food production to collectively decide as to who should befed and who should starve. The farmers in the poor countries are,despite global plenty, abandoning agriculture because they just cannotcompete with the heavily-subsidized foods which are flooded by theindustrialized countries under the agreements aiming at liberalizationof trade. In Pakistan, many farmers have to burn their harvests sincethe price they may fetch is too low compared with the cost of pickingand transportation, leave alone the high cost of agricultural input.In Indonesia the government imports rice from Vietnam while its ownfarmers are bringing in their rice harvest to the market.

It may be seen that perpetuation of hunger is the tool of socialpollution that favours the corporate sector to remain in foodbusiness. It is only under such conditions that the corporate sectoris able to market its products and earn profits. Hunger is the type ofsocial pollution, which when imposed takes away the ability to think,to perform normal physical actions, and to be a rational human being.This form of social pollution has its linkage with poverty. Of the 830million hungry people worldwide, about 250 million live in India butthe socially diseased Indian governing hierarchy did not distributethe surplus 10 million tons of food grains in 1999 to alleviatepoverty. The surplus increased in the year 2000 to 60 million tons,most of which was allowed to rot in the granaries in the hope ofexporting the commodity. The government also did not buy grain fromits farmers. The farmers, who had gone into debt to purchase expensivechemical fertilizers and pesticides on the advice of the government,were forced to burn their crops on their fields. In the mean timeIndia imported grains from USA and is continuing as the largestimporter of the same grain that it exports.

Indonesia achieved food self-sufficiency in 1985 but by 1998, it wasthe largest recipient of food aid in the world. It is not that therewere no more crops in Indonesia. The reason was that the USA andAustralia were to unload their surplus wheat under the conditionsagreed to by Jakarta to get food aid. This, as noted earlier, wasdespite the fact that Indonesians do not eat wheat.

Transfer of technologies or extension of resource intensive economicmodel to developing nations, or offering food aid instead of buildingcapacity to grow food, as is occurring on a global scale, amounts toinciting social pollution of high order and should not be regardedsocially and environmentally viable. Of particular concern are thefarming practices that are not resource-efficient and theindustrialized countries, in order to create a market for theirproducts such as pesticides, fertilizers and genetically engineeredseeds have been transferring their products as well as methods thatare in innumerable cases neither socially sound nor environmentallyviable.

Poverty and Impoverishment of Resources Land for growing staple grain crops was shrinking throughout the lastsix decades since agricultural land in the developing countries was

being lost due to impoverishment of resources and was yielding to thepressure of urbanization. What was needed was to bridge the gapbetween urban and rural development so that the rural poor were lessinclined to migrate to urban areas in search of food and employment,which was not there. The structural adjustment politics that goes handin hand with the strategy to liberalize the market economy, hasstrained the poor, robbed him of the capacity to grow his food and hasimpoverished the rural areas to the extent that hunger prevails allover.

Poverty has been induced in developing countries including Pakistan byimpoverishment of resources in the rural areas. In Pakistan it hasforced rural-urban migration but urban centres have not provided themigrants what they were looking for. A stage has been reached where anaverage Pakistani finds himself poorer with every passing day. Povertydoubled from 17.3% in 1987-88 to 32.6% in 1998-99. The householdincome of the lowest quintile or 20% of the population remained staticduring the last 33 years at around 7%. It was 6.4% in 1963-64 andafter touching 8.4% a year later, came to 7% in 1996-97. The income ofthe middle 60% dropped from 48.3% to 43.6% in the mean time. The shareof the top quintile, however, rose from 45.3% to 49.4%, suggesting thecreation of a wide gap between the top quintile, which monopolizedhalf the income and the bottom quintile that had to remain contentedwith a meagre 7% of the total income.

By the end of July 2000 the number of people living below the povertyline in Pakistan had shot up four times in two decades as a result ofpersistent decline in economic growth caused by the gradual depletionof resourcefulness resulting from absence of good governance of thesystem of distribution of resources, misappropriation of nationalwealth and operation of the forces of social pollution. The populationwas 84.25 million in 1981 and was growing at a rate of 3.2% per annumand decelerating to 2.7% thereafter had reached a figure of 134million in 1998. Poverty was estimated by the Centre for HumanDevelopment to be afflicting 40% in 1998 as against 21.2% in 1980-81,28.6% in 1986-87and 35.9% in 1992-93. A projection of these figures tothe present situation which is painted with nothing but gloom,suggests that the poverty line has dragged 10 to 12% more people fromthe lower middle class and it stands at above 55%. Developmentactivities were obviously too inadequate to improve the quality oflife and the basket of basic needs comprising food, clothing, shelter,healthcare, education, transport, potable water and energy was

exhausted and could not be made available to a major section ofpopulation.

In contrast with the impoverishment noted above, the consumption ofnatural resources by modern industrial economies remained very high at45 to 85 metric tons per person annually when all materials, includingsoil erosion, mining wastes, and other ancillary materials are takeninto consideration. At the end of the last century it required almost300 kg of natural resources to generate one hundred dollars of incomein the most advanced economies. Use of such high volume of materialsindicates how resource intensive are the technologies developed tomeet the needs of the enjoy-the-richness syndrome of theindustrialized countries that are placed in group (ii) of the CPIranking/social pollution order, besides suggesting the massiveenvironmental degradation resulting from them.

Chemicals in Crop ProductionCrop production requires fertilizers, pesticides and seeds, whichtogether offer products that provide essential support to modernagriculture. These three components are fundamental to agriculturalproductivity improvements that have enabled food production toincrease alongside population and economic growth. These improvementshave come almost entirely from increasing crop yields and not fromincrease in area under cultivation, which expanded very little inrecent years in the industrialized countries but did so substantiallyin developing countries.

Taking a glance at the historical development of modern agricultureone finds that while the mechanical era of 1920-1950 led tosignificant increase in agricultural production and dramatic decreasein the need for farm labour, the chemical era of 1950-1980 boostedproductivity through use of chemical fertilizers, feed additives, andpesticides to save crops from pests. It is estimated that during a 20year period from 1964 to 1985 global fertilizer use increased from 34to 86 kg/ha of cropland. In the USA it increased from 63 to 101, inBangladesh from 6 to 60 and in Pakistan from 5 to 64 kg/ha ofcropland. The average annual pesticide use was 394,629 tons in thefirst five years of the 1980s in USA while it was 673 tons inBangladesh and 232 tons in Pakistan during the same period. The indexof production of all crops increased in Pakistan from 100 in 1959-60to 298 in 1985-86 (Pakistan Economic Survey, 1995-96), in Bangladeshfrom 80 in 1964-66 to 114 in 1984-86 and in the USA from 74 to 103

(World Resources, 1988-89). Although this production rise was duelargely to increased use of plant fertilizers, new plant hybrids, andirrigation, pesticides contributed equally to the increase.Consequently the use of pesticides in industrialized countriesrecorded considerable rise during the period.

It did not take long after World War II for the negative impact of thedownside of widespread use of man made materials to surface up in theenvironment. The consequences of using agricultural chemicals withoutassessment of the impact on the health of users were waiting only forthe critical limit to arrive. Degradation of the environment as aresult of excessive use of hazardous chemicals, including pesticideswas realized in the 1960s with the publication of the Silent Spring.Warming of the earth as a result of excessive use of fossil fuel andemission of carbon dioxide was realized in the mid-1970s when the CO2

concentration doubled from the level observed in the earlier half ofthe century. Thinning of the ozone layer and appearance of the ozonehole over the Antarctica was observed in the late 1980s and attributedto the extensive use of chloroflurocarbons, CFCs.

The application of agrochemicals on crop for protection as well asproduction had serious negative impact on the physical and humanenvironment. Initially the accidents due to use of chemicals in cropprotection and production did not matter since the tragedies such asthe killing and intoxication of spraymen in Pakistan in 1976 and theBhopal MIC leakage in 1984 were reported from the developingcountries. They have now become very important since the negativeimpact on health is being reported from the manufacturing countries.Reports of damages done to the environment are now pouring inincessantly from America and the industrialized countries.

The worst is the case of pesticides of repute whose negative impactswere not adequately reported when introduced. Agricultural pesticidesare chemical poisons. They are sprayed onto crops at certain times ofthe year and during application people living near sprayed fields geta sudden dose of these chemicals through their lungs, skin anddrinking water. Receiving shock doses of poisons results in endocrinedisruption leading to abnormalities. Recently a study of 4 and 5 year-old children exposed to pesticides in Mexico specifically noted adecrease in mental ability and an increase in aggressive behavioramong children, indicating thyroid dysfunction. Functionally, theexposed children demonstrated decreases in stamina, gross and fineeye-hand coordination, 30-minute-memory, and the ability to draw a

person. Behavior of pesticide-exposed children was described asabnormal. Some valley children were observed hitting their siblingswhen they passed by, and they became easily upset or angry with aminor corrective comment by a parent. These aggressive behaviours werenot noted in the foothills. In humans, as in dogs, behaviour andlearning disabilities are seen long before any clinical signs ofthyroid dysfunction are manifest.

Despite the fact that pesticides are a key factor in food and fibreabundance in USA, the public is concerned that they have excessivelyadverse effects on human health and the environment (Ragsdale andSisler, 1994). During the 1960's there was also a documented rise inpest (insect) resistance to many pesticides. The resistance issuestill continues to demand attention and includes plant pathogens(Sanders, 1990). Today, concerns exist in the USA about theenvironment, health, nutrition, and safety of food supply. Inparticular, a great deal of concern is expressed on the effects ofpesticide chemicals on the health of infants and young children.

The success in application of chemicals in crop production andprotection was the driving force in the growth of agribusiness, whichled to the emergence of scores of chemical enterprises. Consumption ofchemicals had an explosive rate of growth. Prompted by thedetermination to increase their control over the world supply of foodand agricultural chemicals, the Agrochemical MNCs invested heavily inresearch and development. About 3 new synthetic chemicals wereintroduced each day during the 1960-80 period. The cost of developinga marketable product from the research laboratory to the field jumpedfrom $20 million 20 to 25 years ago to more than $100 million as ofnow. Almost nothing was known about the long-term health andenvironmental effects of new synthetics, so the humanity was ambushedagain and again by discoveries and claims of winning the war againstpests. The chronic effects that mattered were sidelined and so was theissue that the evolution of pesticide-resistant pests was accompaniedby a simultaneous increase in pesticide use. This is of no majorconcern to the MNCs which on having invested such large amounts,consolidated their gains during the last half century to remain inbusiness.

85,000 chemicals were registered with the Environmental ProtectionAgency for commercial use in America although almost 99% of them didnot exist before World War II. None of the thousands of chemicals weretested for their effect on mankind. In a rush to develop and

incorporate new chemicals adequate testing was left behind. Only about43% of the roughly 3,000 high-production-volume chemicals areestimated to have been tested by 1998. Thousands of chemicals werecommercialized without adequately testing them. The number of childrenthat paid a price for getting rid of lead in gasoline must be inmillions and those who have died as a result of use of untestedindustrial chemicals that did not even exist a half-century ago willnever be known.

Pesticides are widely used for non-agricultural as well asagricultural purposes. Pesticides include chemicals applied toprevent, control, or destroy destructive pests and disease causingmicrobes. These pest control chemicals are integral tools of modernagriculture (Jennings, 1991). Pesticides are directed toward thecontrol of bacteria, fungi, insects, rodents, nematodes, roundworms,and weeds. Pesticides are also used in disinfectants, fumigants, andplant growth regulators. Biological control agents must also beregistered as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, andRodenticide Act as amended, known as FIFRA. Some of the bacteria andfungi that attack food plants and their harvests actually producedetectable levels of potent toxins and carcinogens if not held incheck by pesticide action. For example, fungal aflatoxins are a foodcontaminant and risk because of their well-documented potency as livercarcinogens (Busby and Wogan, 1984; Wogan, 1992). Aflatoxin producingfungi are effectively controlled by fungicidal action.

A dramatic rise in U.S. food and fibre production occurred during the1950's and 1960's. Compared with most other countries, Americans enjoya highly varied diet of reasonably priced food. The American foodindustry claims and is supported by the government agencies in makingthe claims, that its food supply is among the safest and most abundantin the world and pesticides are one of the important tools that havemade that abundance possible. But there is a common and growingperception by the public that the American food is not as wholesome asdesired and as claimed because of pesticide residues. This will bediscussed in a subsequent chapter on Case History of the Disasters ofPesticide Usage.

Pesticide usage in the USA has been relatively stable at about 0.5million tons of active ingredients during recent years. Pesticide useincreased steadily throughout the 1960s and 1970s, primarily becauseof herbicide applications. Recently, this trend has slowed due to theintroduction of more potent pesticides, more efficient pesticide

usage, and lower farm commodity prices. The estimates for U.S.pesticide user expenditures totaled about $8.5 billion in 1993, and$8.2 billion in 1992.

Of the 0.5 million tons of active ingredients used as conventionalpesticides, there are about 21,000 pesticide products and 860 activeingredients registered in the USA under federal pesticide law. Twentynew active ingredients were registered for use as pesticides underFIFRA in 1993, and 11 in 1992 (Aspelin, 1994). If wood preservativesand disinfectants are included, total U.S. pesticide usage in 1993 wasabout 1.0 million tons of active ingredients.

It is an abhorrent practice for US pesticide manufacturers to exportillegal dangerous pesticides to other countries, knowing that noregulations exist in those countries. This should be considered acrime against mankind.

The World Health Organization estimates that all of the 220,000 annualpesticide related deaths occur in the developing countries, where 80percent of the world production of pesticides is used. Agriculturalworkers are rarely, if ever, given sufficient information on the risksinvolved and thus do not take proper protective measures when usingpesticides. Pesticide poisoning is thirteen times higher for LatinAmerican workers than for US workers. The data for Pakistan and Indiawould suggest many times more since the lack of information at thegrass root level is so tragically suppressed that the sprayman who maylook diseased and may be diseased does not admit that he was coughingdue to suffocation in an environment of deadly methyl parathion. Eachyear there are tens of thousands of farmers intoxicated during thesowing and early spray periods and a similar number of women sufferduring the cotton picking stage.

Pesticides are in fact the potentially toxic chemicals that havehelped the industrialized countries win wars. In crop production theyhave worked as a tool to obtain the surplus food supply that allowsthem to dictate terms and/or use food as a tool to oblige and thensubjugate other economies, mostly developing. The abundant food supplyin Australia, Canada and USA has enabled each of them to attain highstandard of living which may not have been possible withoutfertilizers and pesticides. Pesticides have on the other hand donesuch immense damage to the living environment that many people aroundthe world are led to believe that they are potentially dangerous toman and the living environment. There is so much concern about the

consequences of their usage that it will be in public interest thatfacts are made known to the people in general and knowledgeable peoplei.e. opinion makers in particular. The origin, chemicalclassification, toxicology and health impact along with the risk andbenefits from their usage, and the regulatory process adopted bygovernments to regulate their trade and use should be made public.With the provision of all the relevant information and fact sheets, itshould be possible for the public to draw its own conclusions. Thedetailed information should be used as the basis for formulation ofpesticide policies.

The damages done to the environment are real and the benefits fromtheir usage in Pakistan and other countries, which do not themselvesproduce them are outweighed by risks involved in doing so. The growingconcern about the risks has a number of decision makers wondering if atotal ban on use of pesticides and the chemicals should be imposed.However, it is a fact that termites are hard to exterminate withoutchemicals that are highly toxic, and so are the fleas in carpets, moldin vegetables, toxins in food. The risks of food shortage and soaringprices are imminent, and outbreaks of long-forgotten diseases arequite certain.

The risks of pesticides as poisons and hazardous chemicals are realand several agencies in the industrialized countries themselves areworking to inform the government agencies about the dangers and aboutthe damages already done by scores of chemicals and are alsoconstantly reducing the risk of using pesticides by producing "safer"chemicals, pest-specific pesticides, better application methods, andtougher pesticide laws. Indiscriminate use of pesticides continues andaccidents involving pesticides are occurring with the earlierfrequency. And even when used correctly, some pesticides can harm theenvironment and non-targeted living organisms. The risks and benefitsof pesticides usage are both real and therefore utmost caution isneeded to improve pest control methods.

There are a number of ways by which, crops and mammals can beprotected against the attack of insects, fungi and weeds. The use ofagro-chemicals has proved very effective in the control of pests andseveral plant diseases. All pesticides have to be potentially toxicchemicals in order to be effective on the pests. Whatever is toxic topests is also toxic to the humans and the living environment. Thesechemicals have toxicity of the highest degree. It is in the toxicnature of these compounds that the risks are heavy, but they have to

be weighed against the benefits they render. It is essential tocontain the impact of these substances within the area of application.The long term effect of pesticides is such as to reduce the life spanof a person exposed to the risk by periods ranging from a few days toa few years.

The entire chain of chemicals used in the manufacturing process of thepesticides, in their formulations, and application in the field, arereactive by nature and hence toxic to human health and theenvironment, with their toxicity varying only in degree. Theirselection for use in crop protection has to be judicious otherwisethey can be catastrophic. Catastrophes, which have taken the toll ofseveral lives, are only too numerous. They have occurred during themanufacturing process e.g. in Bhopal, in the application on the fielde.g. the herbicides in Vietnam and during the sprayings e.g.application of Malathion in Pakistan. A number of these chemicals e.g.DDT are proved carcinogens while there are others, which arecandidates in the list of carcinogenic and teratogenic compounds. Theyhave been creating hazards through their entry into the air, waterbodies or the food chain and have been causing occupational andenvironmental health hazards.

Pests account for 35% of the crop losses. There is therefore a need toprotect the crops from the pests. In trying to protect the crop fromthe pests by using pesticides, which as just stated have to bepotentially toxic, immense damage is being done to the human as wellas animal health and the environment. A cautious estimate suggests375,000 sufferings in Pakistan are due to pesticide poisoningresulting from direct use or contact or indirect use e.g.contamination of food or the food chain.

It is known that white fly serves as the vector of the leaf curldisease. It is felt that the white fly should be eliminated. However,it is also being felt and increasingly so that the indiscriminate andunsystematic use of pesticides is equally responsible for contributingto the virulence of the disease which has been playing havoc on thecotton crop in Pakistan. An aspect that bothers the cotton croppers isthat the white fly has become immune to the pesticides. It has beenreported that there are over 500 pests that have developed resistanceto pesticides. Some of those for which resistance has been noted arecypermethrin and monocrotophos. Use of pesticides has also broughtabout resurgence of pests, outbreak of secondary pests as well asdestruction of beneficial species, including predators and parasites.

The Chemical era did, at its very inception, revolutionize agriculturein many different ways. Application of marketing forces to trade andapplication of pesticides on crops led to excessive use of somepotentially toxic chemicals. In order to get the desired results incrop protection and production, their unforeseen impact were not givendue consideration and that brought disrepute to many of them. Theproblem was aggravated by the disposal of toxic wastes, whichaccompany each process of chemical production. The US Department ofAgriculture and the countries faced with the menace of pestsdestroying the crops and affecting the health of people were, in 1952eulogizing the virtues and advantages of chemicals in crop protectionand in enhancing agricultural production.

Just when farmers and the public were getting accustomed to the lowertoxicity of the chlorinated hydrocarbons and were beginning to forgetthe high toxicity of the arsenicals and dinitro compounds used beforethe war, the new organophosphate and carbamate insecticides wereintroduced and the attitude of the users changed. The organophosphatesare much more acutely toxic than the chlorinated hydrocarbons. Allorganophosphates inhibit the activity of cholinesterase, and theregulation of nerve transmission in the body. The result as observedon experimental animals is over stimulation of the nervous system;they cannot run, they cannot walk, they cannot breathe and that is theway the pests are killed. With the introduction of these compounds inthe early 1950s, a sudden surge of pesticide poisonings occurred. Theconsequence was that pesticide poisonings increased for a few years inthe early 1950s. When farmers and the public became aware of thehazards of the new pesticides and began to take precautions, incidentsof poisoning dropped back to a lower level. The long term healthhazards took a little more time for emergence, however.

Farmers, foresters, and public health officials had been spraying DDTacross the country to control pests such as Mexican boll weevils,gypsy moths, and suburban mosquitoes since the 1940s. The publicationof the Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962 denounced the gains of thepesticides in general but DDT in particular. It warned the producersof the consequences of the use of pesticides which have the capacityto poison the food supply of animals and to kill birds and aquaticanimals in addition to contaminating the food supply to large sectionof human users. It was this initiative that has moved the chemicalindustry to regulate its stance on production of pesticides withappropriate assessment of the impact on health of the user and

consumer to avert massive degradation of the environment. The book hada devastating effect on the marketing and use of pesticides,particularly DDT. By 1968 several states in the USA had banned the useof DDT. Public pressure was so high on the US EPA, established in1968, that the marketing forces could not work and DDT had to bebanned in USA in 1972.

The claimed success in application of pesticides in farming, ifaccepted, is at enormous costs and sacrifice of environmental values.Pesticides brought only short term gains. Recent studies and theseveral case histories do not support the views that the benefits frompesticides outweigh the damages done to humanity and the environment.Pesticides, particularly DDT saved the lives of millions by preventingthe population from contracting malaria, bubonic plague and typhussince the late 1940s. That, however, was short term gain. Now peopleare scared of its persistence and scourge of cancer. The forcefullobby of the manufacturers led the users to believe that pesticideswork faster and are more effective than the alternatives. This is nolonger true; their application even at very low concentration comparedto the older products, does more harm than the latter.

What has happened despite the strong lobby of the agribusiness, whichhas been producing around 40 times more pesticides since theirintroduction 50 years back, is that the insects did not stop breedingnor were they exterminated. Contrarily they quickly developedresistance to the insecticides. Additionally, broad-spectrumpesticides killed natural predators, which are useful in keeping thepests at bay. The present position is that while the use of syntheticpesticides, which include insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides,herbicides, and others has increased more than 40 fold in the lasthalf century, the food supply lost to pests in the USA has accordingto estimates ironically increased to 37% as of now, compared with 31%in the 1940s (i Pimental, David, et al. 1992. Environmental andEconomic Cost of Pesticide Use, BioScience, Vol. 42,No.10, 750-60Pimental, David and Hugh Lehman, eds. 1993. The Pesticide Question:Environmental, Economics and Ethics. New York : Chapman & Hall). Totalcrop losses from insect damage alone have nearly doubled from 7% to13% during that period. This is regardless of the consumption ofaround 75% of the pesticides in USA on cultivation of the four maincrops viz. soybeans, wheat, cotton and corn.

Despite the warnings by Carson, MNCs engaged in chemicals andpharmaceuticals production consolidated their hold during the chemical

era through forceful marketing of pesticides. The warnings could notrestrain the emergence of new chemical manufacturers all over theindustrialized world and also did not constrain them from producingpesticides that were not registered or banned. The MNCs operatedthrough their subsidiaries in the developing and underdevelopedcountries for the sale of their products. Pesticides manufactured indonor countries were supplied under financing through aid and also bythe government sponsored finance and insurance agencies such as the USsponsored Eximbank and the OPIC. This secured the status of the MNCsand other chemical manufacturers, besides allowing them a free hand inmarketing products that were not registered or were even banned foruse in the exporting country.

The MNCs have their own trait of marketing through massiveadvertising. They had a role in aggressively promoting the sale anduse of pesticides in developing countries. This was, however, withoutobserving the simple norms and code of conduct that whatever is bannedfor usage in their own country should not be offered for use in adeveloping country. So strong is the lobby of the MNCs that it hasfound its way through into working in close collaboration with the UNAgency, FAO in matters of their interest in agriculture.

Industry Cooperative Programme, the organization of agribusinesscorporations had a direct involvement in FAO for 12 years from 1966.Their efforts at making the developing countries dependent on theindiscriminate application of pesticides supplied by them is one ofthe distinct ways of inducing social pollution to which developingcountries are silent spectators. In this game of inducing socialpollution, the international banks, government agencies of theindustrialized countries and MNCs are equal partners and ensure thatcorporate investments are secure.

Led by public pressure in the USA the use of pesticides is now beingcondemned all over in the industrialized countries because of therisks of exposure to health of the workers and the non-agriculturalusers. The health of workers and children has been of great concernafter the publication of Silent Spring. Public pressure on the Governmentwas effective in getting DDT banned in the USA in 1972. The same kindof pressure is now being exerted on the use of pesticides beingapplied on lawns and on those traded and exported to developingcountries. Several groups are actively engaged in the industrializedcountries to bring in a total change and switch over to safealternatives. The marketing forces that are there to keep the

enterprise active have, however, the backing of the governinghierarchies of the country as well as that of the multilateralfinancial institutions on their side.

The realization that the above forces of marketing are inducing theuse of pesticides on their crops has yet to come among the decisionmakers in developing countries. The pesticides have to be applied herein realization that if the pests attack can render a whole populationhungry it would be better to kill the pests by all means. Cotton cropfailure due to pest attack has been occurring in Pakistan since 1992but it was worst in 1994. The damage done by the cotton leaf curlvirus to the economy of the country was of the order of over Rs 50billion during the last few years. Cotton is the mainstay of theeconomy of the country and the crop was saved using the deadliestpoisons, particularly because there was no other alternative. It isknown that the pesticides are poisons and also that each sowing seasonand the following three months require spraying that intoxicatesthousands of agricultural workers. It is also known that a similarnumber of women cotton pickers suffer from pesticide related diseasesafter the male labour force has been through the ordeal.

The feudal system, poverty and pressure of salesmanship induced by theMNCs are the components of social pollution that do not allow anypriority consideration of the negative impact of pesticide usage inthe developing countries.

The dependence on agro-chemicals including chemical fertilizers,pesticides and supplements has introduced new health hazards, whichare there to stay ever since World War II. This has had seriousnegative impact on modern agriculture, public health, and pest controlof household as well as lawns and home gardens, public parks, alonghighways and public thoroughfares. Most pesticides produce little riskwhen used according to label directions. However, some are extremelytoxic and require special precautions. No new technology for cropprotection has been able to replace the chemicals but that is noreason to continue with use of poisons. In the event of incidences ofmassive poisoning due to their acute toxicity and health hazards dueto chronic toxicity related illnesses growing with every passing day,alternatives need to be adopted.

In order to reduce the serious negative impact of the use ofpesticides, an integrated pest management, IPM is being advocated.This management system aims at combining biological methods of control

with the chemicals and to use the chemicals only sparingly, or whenabsolutely necessary. The main objective of the use of IPM is toutilize all available techniques to reduce and maintain pestpopulation at levels below those causing injury of economic importanceto agriculture and forestry.