Respect for the environment-a chemical company's vision for a partnership with nature

This paper presents the environmental stewardship principles of the Du Pont Agricultural Products developed recently. The author initiates the paper with a discussion of some factors that will influence the evolution of agriculture into the next century: production and distribution of food; human population growth and areas of most rapid increase; proportion of the earth's surface that is arable; place of plant protection chemicals in production agriculture. The nine point Du Pont stewardship program includes the following areas: food and fiber safety; disease and residue level detection program; surface and ground water quality; worker safety; on-target use, resistance management, and wildlife and resource conservation; integrated ecosystem management; waste management; product quality