pete myers

Environmental Health Sciences

Internalizing the externalized public health costs of industrial agriculture

Pete Myers, Environmental Health Sciences


What do we know?

The costs are real

But what we now ‘know’ vastly underestimates true costs

Only the tiniest fraction of ag chemicals have been studied for health effects by independent scientists

Only a small fraction of plausible health endpoints have been assessed

Only a handful of studies have tried to connect those health effects with economic costs


What do we know?

But there is an even larger elephant in the room

A revolution in science has unfolded over the past 20 years indicating health consequences far bigger and more common than traditional estimates even hinted.


Revolution in science

Epigenetics and endocrine disruption


The United Nations is serious about it


Revolution in science

Low doses matter a lot

Events in the womb don’t stay in the womb

The tools we have used to assess safety are profoundly misguided

2.5 parts per billion of atrazine


Low levels matter

Not “just” affecting farmworkers


Moving forward

Confident the numbers are big

Next steps

Some estimates possible now

Identify priority health endpoints

Establish most plausible chemical drivers

Develop the economic analyses

pete myers

Health & Medicine