The adoption of neo-liberal economic models in Latin American countries between the late 1980's and early 1990's has led to, among other impacts, a significant change in the rural production model, with a clear incentive to exportation-oriented agribusiness, especially that based on extensive monoculture (soy-bean, corn, cotton etc.). This change, primarily focused on rural production increment, was supported by the implementation of new production technologies, especially the use of chemical agents for crop protection and pest control. The impacts of the indiscriminate and extensive use of these chemical agents for actual and future generations of rural workers are indeterminate. Furthermore, it is hard to estimate the dimension of correlated environmental damages. In the present article, the role of pesticides use in rural production is discussed, contextualizing the local and regional rural production panorama and the impacts - economic, social, environmental and sanitary - of neo-liberal rural production policies.
Pesticides; Neo-liberalism; Rural production; Rural work
