The Generic Herbicide Industry: A Global Production Network Analysis

经济活动越来越多地通过地理上相距遥远但组织上联系在一起的供应链，或“全球生产网络”来组织。人们对这些网络如何影响物质的供应和使用知之甚少，这些物质是全球环境变化的关键驱动因素。这个项目将通过生产网络的镜头来研究一个驱动因素--农用化学品。它侧重于除草剂(即除草剂)，这是许多国家最重要的杀虫剂类别之一。这些国家是快速增长的除草剂市场，它们首次成为除草剂的主要生产国和出口国。这项研究将调查这一转变，以及这对经济发展、农业系统和获得食物意味着什么。该项目跨越经济-生态鸿沟，探索环境变化、农业食品系统、经济发展和人类健康之间的关系。该项目将开发用于共享结果的新工具，包括世界各地除草剂法规的互动数据库和地图。将向参与国际农药监管的行业、政策制定者和非政府组织提供关于塑造农用化学品的经济和政治力量的新工具和知识。这项研究考察了新的非专利除草剂制造公司作为这些化学品广泛获得和使用的重要驱动力所起的变革作用。这些公司构成了全球活动网络的一部分，该网络包括原材料提取、活性成分生产、最终产品配方、分销和使用。研究设计结合了定性和定量方法，以了解这一网络的地理位置自2000年以来如何相对于各国的发展水平发生变化。它研究了这些模式是如何由公司之间的权力动态、公司和政府之间的互动，以及除草剂本身由于杂草抗性和公共卫生而发生变化的性质而形成的。这项工作的结果将为进一步研究农业集约化的工业方面及其对健康和福祉、环境和粮食安全的影响提供信息。该项目将支持进一步发展经济-生态方法来研究全球产业。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Economic activity is increasingly organized through geographically distanced but organizationally linked supply chains, or “global production networks.” Little is known of how these networks shape the availability and use of substances that act as key drivers of global environmental change. This project will examine one driver – agrochemicals -- through the lens of production networks. It focuses on herbicides (i.e., weed killers), which are among the most important class of pesticides for many countries. Such countries are fast-growing markets for herbicides and, for the first time, they have become their main producers and exporters. The research will investigate this transformation, and what this means for economic development, farming systems, and access to food. The project works across the economy-ecology divide to create explore relationships between environmental change, agro-food systems, economic development, and human health. The project will develop new tools for sharing results, including an interactive database and map of herbicide regulations around the world. New tools and knowledge about the economic and political forces shaping agrochemicals will be made available to industry, policy makers, and non-governmental organizations involved in the international regulation of pesticides.This research examines the transformative role of new, generic herbicide manufacturing firms as important drivers in these chemicals’ widespread availability and use. These firms form part of a global network of activities that includes raw material extraction, active ingredient production, final product formulation, distribution and use. The research design combines qualitative and quantitative methods to understand how the geography of this network has changed in relation to countries’ levels of development since 2000. It examines how these patterns are shaped by power dynamics among firms, interactions between firms and governments, and the changing nature of herbicides themselves due to weed resistance and public health. Results of this work will inform further research on the industrial side of agricultural intensification and its implications for health and wellbeing, environment, and food security. The project will support further development of economy-ecology approaches to the study of global industries.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.