Researcher: Atrazine Accounts for Up to 85,000 US Jobs
28 February 2012 GREENSBORO, N.C., — A new jobs analysis shows atrazine continues to be a mainstay for US farmers for controlling weeds.
Atrazine supports up to 85,000 US jobs, according to a new report by Dr. Don L. Coursey, Ameritech Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago Harris School.
The new estimate is based on 2010 price and production figures and new research by a team of ag experts, who calculate atrazine’s value to the U.S. economy at up to $9 billion. It represents jobs related to atrazine in corn, grain sorghum, sugar cane and other production crops.
“We put this data about atrazine into a jobs perspective because people want to know the impact on the average consumer,” said Coursey in a statement. “If atrazine were to become unavailable, and all atrazine-dependent jobs were taken solely from the agricultural sector, its unemployment rate would increase by as much as 3.8%,” he added.
Syngenta, principal registrant for atrazine, commissioned new research, including five papers as well as Coursey’s report.
CropLife America’s November 2011 report supports Coursey’s estimate, according to a statement. It shows crop protection products, including but not limited to atrazine, create more than 1 million jobs and generate more than $33 billion in wages for US workers. The report details the economic, environmental and food production benefits of crop protection products, including pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides as well as biotechnology products.
In combined data from 236 university corn field trials from 1986 to 2005, atrazine treatments showed an average of 5.7 bushels more per acre than alternative herbicide treatments, according to Syngenta.
An Agricultural Health Study, published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in 2011, concluded that “there was no consistent evidence of an association between atrazine use and any cancer site. There was a suggestion of increased risk of thyroid cancer, but these results are based on relatively small numbers and minimal supporting evidence.”
For more information about atrazine, visit www.atrazine.com.
Source: Syngenta, Edited by Stefanie A. Toth, Online Editor
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