The post-harvest development of bacterial diseases of fruits and vegetables, such 
as soft rot, cannot be controlled satisfactorily because of insufficient residue data on the 
antibiotics which are effective in controlling them. 
THE JOB AHEAD 
The increasing development and use of new herbicides, growth regulators, nemato- 
cides, fungicides, desiccants, defoliants, and other non-insecticidal compounds have 
created an urgent need for more research to gain an understanding of the actions of 
pesticides and their fate in and on crop plants. We should have enough knowledge about 
the behavior of pesticides in and on plants and soils to construct a balance sheet which 
accounts for a given chemical from application until its ultimate fate is known. The 
information is needed to permit the formulation of safe recommendations on the use of 
promising pesticidal chemicals which cannot be used at present because of the lack of 
adequate basic information on their actions, behavior, and disappearance from plants 
and soils. 
A few pesticides that have been used for many years are now suspected of leaving 
possible residues on food commodities. Research is urgently needed to supply the neces- 
sary basic dataand information for clearance or abandonment of these materials. Farmers 
may soon be denied several valuable and widely used chemicals unless research infor- 
mation is provided on residues and degradation products of the chemicals in the crops and 
food products concerned. Basic research on the actions and ultimate fate of chemicals is 
needed to fill an important gap in the present industrial and public agency research pro- 
grams and alsoto reassure the public thatthe health of man and animals is being protected 
against harmful residues. 
Expanded research is needed for: 
e Developing improved materials and methods for combatting pests that will leave 
little or no chemical residues in or on raw agricultural commodities. 
e Developing sensitive analytical procedures and methods for detecting quantitatively 
and identifying pesticide residues and degradation products indifferent tissues of various 
crop plants, in soils, and in irrigation water. 
e Determining the effects of temperature, light, moisture, and other factors on chem- 
ical actions and on the disappearance of pesticides from plants and soils. 
2 Determining the entry, movement, persistence, and accumulation of pesticide 
residues in plants, including work on formulations and methods and times of application 
to minimize pesticide residues in and on crops. 
e Determining the biochemical and physiological processes involved in the metab- 
olism and degradation of pesticides. 
e Determining the effects of chemicals on the chemical composition, taste, and other 
quality factors of food and feed crops. 
Each pesticidal chemical must go through an obstacle course and measure up to 
certain standards before it can be used on agricultural crops. An admirable job has been 
done and continues to be done in cooperative industry-public agency research to provide 
adequate information to ensure the safe usage of agricultural chemicals from the stand- 
point of both public health and the crops involved. An additional hurdle which has been 
largely by-passed is more precise determination of the fate of pesticidal chemicals. 
In the use of herbicides, therapeutants, and certain growth regulators there is a 
built-in safety feature in that excessive dosages cause serious injury to the crop plants 
involved. For this reason, considerable precision is necessary in applying the correct 
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