Preface
What's the problem? Pesticides in everyday life
Agriculture in the pesticide treadmill
Pesticides are also used elsewhere
What substances are we talking about?
Loose approval and situation-elastic limits
War rhetoric sets the mood Agroecosystems also have a social benefit
What are the consequences for nature and humans?
From "Silent Spring" to own experiments
Earthworms become lazy and have fewer offspring
Tadpoles with crippled tails
Bees and bumblebees without orientation
Birds and bats starve to death Agroecosystems loose their self regulation
Getting used to constant pesticide applications: resistances
The pesticide boomerang is already on its way back
Various side effects on humans
Does the use of pesticides pay off at all?
Critical scientists come on the internet pillory
Wheres is the solution to the problem?
Agriculture without pesticides, is that even possible?
How should the growing world population be fed?
Food waste promotes pesticide use
Agricultural subsidies to curb use of pesticides
Politics should decide and act on the basis of facts
Epilog
References
Acknowledgements
About the Author: Johann G. Zaller is Associate Professor at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. He studied biology, botany and ecology at the Universities of Salzburg and Innsbruck in Austria. During his postgraduate research career he worked and studied in the United States, Argentina, Switzerland and Germany.
His research group at the University of Vienna investigates how environmental changes influence organisms and ecosystem functions. The group especially is interested in the effects of agricultural management measures (e.g. tillage, crop rotation, mowing, fertilising, pesticide applications) and the impacts of global changes (e.g. elevated atmospheric CO2, ultraviolet-B radiation, rainfall and temperature variations, invasive species).
