The use of synthetic chemical pesticides in
agriculture around the world began in the 1950s,
though the types and diversity of chemicals
used have changed over time. Organochlorine,
organophosphate, carbamate and pyrethroid
pesticides were introduced onto the world market
at that time, marking the beginning of industrial
agriculture or the ‘Green Revolution’. In the
decades since then, other types of pesticides (e.g.
neonicotinoids) have been introduced onto the
world market and industrial agriculture has come
to rely more and more on the use of synthetic
chemical pesticides to protect crops from pests
and diseases and to secure or boost yields.
An introduction into some of the pesticides used in
current industrial agriculture is given in Text Box 1