Fungicides afford some protection but huge quantities of chemicals are an expensive and limited answer.

ECONOMIST: Wheat rust and world farming

Although the rust can be managed with three fungicides, it has to be spotted early.

ECONOMIST: The spores of wrath have descended on a southern crop

So far they have documented measureable effects from a host of environmental pollutants including pesticides, fungicides, dioxins and hydrocarbons.

BBC: Chemical defects ��last generations��

One problem is that viruses cannot be killed by fungicides and other agrochemicals.

ECONOMIST: A crucial crop in new trouble

Sark's Agriculture and Environment Committee also claimed the water supply could be polluted by pesticides and fungicides if more vines were planted.

BBC: Sark protest against extension of SEM vineyard project

Biocides are the name given for pesticides used outside the field of agriculture, such as rat poison or treating furniture with fungicides.

BBC: MEPs warning over rat population increase

Both states grow roughly the same acreage of fresh market tomatoes per year, yet Florida farmers apply eight times more insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides than their counterparts in California.

FORBES: A Letter to Barry Esterbrook About Tomatoland

Fungicides are used to kill fungal spores that infect plants and are potentially hazardous to people who are exposed to them at high levels, according to the National Pesticide Information Center.

WSJ: Coke, Pepsi Attempt to Ease O.J. Fears

Both countries have big-league wine industries (Argentina's is the world's fifth-largest), nearly 500 years of vintages, and growing areas with Eden-like climates for farming wine grapes--so warm and dry that grapes easily ripen and pesticides, fungicides, and anti-rot measures are often unnecessary.

FORBES: Making a Case for South America