This Discussion Meeting takes place against a background in which it is often stated that between one-quarter and one-third of the potential harvest of the world’s food crops is lost to weeds, diseases and pests, and that another 10-15% is lost during post-harvest storage under poor conditions. Losses are not so large in developed countries, where control procedures are applied more widely and effectively, and where food stores are maintained carefully. The control procedures rely heavily on herbicides, fungicides and insecticides and so evoke increasing concern of a social and environmental nature. The present situation may be summarized in the following quotation from the Report of the Royal Commission on the Environment,
Agriculture and pollution
(Anon. 1979): We accept that the continued use of pesticides is essential to maintain food supplies and that much care is taken by manufacturers, and through existing control machinery, to ensure safety in use and to minimize adverse environmental effects. We are concerned, nevertheless, about the scale of pesticide use.
Present Situation and Future Prospects of Tropical Medicine in Developed Countries.
