After a big tropical storm, U.S. farmers end up using about ten times their normal amount of pesticides for years.
Most people assume storms simply destroy crops or wash chemicals away; instead, the environmental shock triggers a massive surge in specific pathogens and pests. This creates a long-term 'chemical tail' where adaptation to climate change paradoxically leads to a localized explosion in pesticide use.
Blowin' in the Wind? Adapting to Atlantic Basin Tropical Cyclones with Pesticides ⋆
SSRN · 6346998
Using U.S. county-level data, we uncover a relatively overlooked coping strategy employed by farmers in response to cyclones: selective increase of pesticide application. By constructing a novel dataset spanning 25 years of tropical cyclone activity, pesticide use, and agricultural output, our difference-in-differences design reveals that farmers respond to cyclone shocks by applying more pesticides to protect their crops. On average, a typical U.S. farm applies approximately 2,150–2,250 kg more