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What is the best policy to reduce the ‘un’sustainable use of pesticides in Portugal

dc.contributor.authorCosta, Cristina Amaro Da
dc.contributor.authorSantos, José Lima
dc.date.accessioned2021-12-21T14:17:52Z
dc.date.available2021-12-21T14:17:52Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractPesticides go hand in hand with modern farming. In fact, farmers face many pressures to use pesticides, but the most important reason is to avoid economic losses and maximize gains. The application of synthetic pesticides to food crops in the European Union exceeds 400,000 tonnes per year, with numerous negative health and environmental effects. The objective of this article is to explore the potential for introducing an optimal pesticide policy in Portugal. The impact of different policy strategies (regulation, subsidizing, certification), their applicability and impacts among different stakeholders are assessed to support a proposal for the most suitable policy. A pesticide policy grounded on certification processes (the current one), where consumers have the option to choose food products without pesticides, imposes the choice of using or not pesticides on the producer and excludes vulnerable segments of the population that do not have access to pesticide free food mainly for economic reasons. Pesticide policies grounded on economic incentives (subsidies) to compensate the costs of using expensive pesticide alternatives also leaves the choice to the farmer, that most times adopts an easy to use and less risky option based on pesticide use, even when having the option to receive an economic compensation. The pesticide policy grounded on taxes over pesticides, based on their toxicity (regulation), to compensate pesticide externalities, seems to be the best choice. In this case, food obtained with or without pesticides will have the same price and that will shift farmers towards more sustainable cultivation practices.pt_PT
dc.description.versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionpt_PT
dc.identifier.citationCosta CA, Santos JML (2021). What is the best policy to reduce the ‘un’sustainable use of pesticides in Portugal. Public Policy Portuguese Journal, 6(2), 209-230.pt_PT
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/6953
dc.language.isoporpt_PT
dc.peerreviewedyespt_PT
dc.subjectTaxespt_PT
dc.subjectSustainable farmingpt_PT
dc.subjectCertificationpt_PT
dc.subjectSubsidizingpt_PT
dc.subjectPesticide usept_PT
dc.titleWhat is the best policy to reduce the ‘un’sustainable use of pesticides in Portugalpt_PT
dc.typejournal article
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.citation.endPage229pt_PT
oaire.citation.issue6pt_PT
oaire.citation.startPage209pt_PT
oaire.citation.titlePublic Policy Portuguese Journalpt_PT
oaire.citation.volume2pt_PT
person.familyNameAmaro da Costa
person.givenNameCristina Isabel
person.identifier.ciencia-id4B16-176A-223A
person.identifier.orcid0000-0001-8625-2206
rcaap.rightsopenAccesspt_PT
rcaap.typearticlept_PT
relation.isAuthorOfPublicationd58c2d3b-f869-429d-9152-89f5b03bd781
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscoveryd58c2d3b-f869-429d-9152-89f5b03bd781

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