Pesticides - keeping one step ahead

Pesticides are big business. A global industry worth around £20,000 m, there are over 700 chemicals in use as pesticides, which are formulated into around 35,000 products - insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and rodenticides. World consumption of pesticides is 2,000,000 tonnes which divides up as: US, 24 per cent; Western Europe, 28 per cent; Far East, 25 per cent; Eastern Europe, 8 per cent; and the rest of world, 15 per cent. Recently, however, there has been a decrease in the amounts of pesticides used owing to the identification of new active ingredients, which are more potent and required in smaller doses. What are these pesticides and how do they work?