Table 2.

Assessing Social Benefits in Pesticide Research

Benefits identification	Increased knowledge about how pesticides affect human beings
	Stricter (safer) pesticide regulations
Benefits estimation	Research is likely to produce knowledge about how pesticides affect human beings but that knowledge may not be very significant, since we already have safety data from animal studies
	Research could lead to safer pesticide regulations but it also could be used to justify laxer regulations
Benefits distribution	Benefits are likely to accrue to pesticide companies, farmers and other agribusiness interests
	The public may benefit from stricter pesticide regulations or the public could be harmed by laxer regulations