Abstract
Residuals from agricultural pesticides threaten the environment and human health. Climate change alters these externalities because it affects pest pressure and pesticide application rates. This study examines damages from pesticide externalities in US agriculture under different climate projections and the effects of alternative regulations. We find divergent impacts of externality regulation and climate change on agricultural production in the US. A Pigovian tax on pesticide externalities generally increases crop production cost, but farm revenue improves because of increased commodity prices. Climate change generally decreases US farm revenue because production increases and prices fall. Results also show a heterogeneous effect of climate change on pest management intensities across major crops.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chen CC, McCarl BA (2003) An investigation of the relationship between pesticide usage and climate change (vol 50, pg 475, 2001). Clim Chang 61:250
Cochrane WW (1958) Farm prices. Myth and reality. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
Gutierrez AP, Ponti L, d’Oultremont T, Ellis CK (2008) Climate change effects on poikilotherm tritrophic interactions. Clim Chang 87:S167–S192
Hall C, Longbrake T, Knutson RD, Cotner S, Smith EG (1994) Yield and cost impacts of reduced pesticide use on onion production. Subtropical Plant Sci 46:22–28
Knutson RD, Smith EG (1999) Impacts of eliminating organophosphates and carbamates from crop production. AFPC policy working paper 99–2. Texas A&M University, College Station
Koleva NG, Schneider UA (2009) The impact of climate change on the external cost of pesticide applications in US agriculture. Int J Agric Sustain 7:203–216
Koleva NG, Schneider UA, Tol RSJ (2010) The impact of weather variability and climate change on pesticide applications in the US - an empirical investigation. Int J Ecol Econ Stat 18:64–81
Leach AW, Mumford JD (2008) Pesticide environmental accounting: a method for assessing the external costs of individual pesticide applications. Environ Pollut 151:139–147
McCarl BA, Reilly JM (2007) “US Agriculture in the climate change squeeze: Part 1: Sectoral Sensitivity and Vulnerability,” report to National Environmental Trust. Available at: http://agecon2.tamu.edu/people/faculty/mccarl-bruce/papers/1303Agriculture in the climate change squeez1.doc
Mearns LO (2003) Special issue on the impacts of climatic variability and change on agriculture. Clim Chang 60:1–148
Patterson DT, Westbrook JK, Joyce RJV, Lingren PD, Rogasik J (1999) Weeds, insects, and diseases. Clim Chang 43:711–727
Porter JH, Parry ML, Carter TR (1991) The potential effects of climatic-change on agricultural insect pests. Agric For Meteorol 57:221–240
Pretty J (2001) Policy challenges and priorities for internalizing the externalities of modern agriculture. J Environ Plan Manag 44:263–283
Reilly JM, Hrubovcak J, Graham J, Abler DG, Darwin R, Hollinger SE, Izaurralde RC, Jagtap S, Jones JW, Kimble J, McCarl BA, Mearns LO, Ojima DS, Paul EA, Paustian K, Riha SJ, Rosenberg NJ, Rosenzweig C, Tubiello F (2002) Changing climate and changing agriculture, the potential consequences of climate variability and change, US National Assessment, USGCRP. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 1–14
Schneider UA, McCarl BA, Schmid E (2007) Agricultural sector analysis on greenhouse gas mitigation in US agriculture and forestry. Agric Syst 94:128–140
Acknowledgments
This work has received partial funding from the International Max-Planck Research School for Maritime Affairs, the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) under grant agreement No.212535, Climate Change -Terrestrial Adaptation and Mitigation in Europe (CC-TAME), www.cctame.eu; the Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction (CliSAP) cluster of excellence at Hamburg University, the Michael Otto Foundation for Environmental Protection, and the United State Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Online resource 1
(PDF 38 kb)
Online resource 2
(PDF 127 kb)
Online resource 3
(PDF 25 kb)
Online resource 4
(PDF 66 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shakhramanyan, N.G., Schneider, U.A. & McCarl, B.A. US agricultural sector analysis on pesticide externalities – the impact of climate change and a Pigovian tax. Climatic Change 117, 711–723 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0585-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0585-3