Multispecies Entanglements of Pesticide Resistance in the Chemical Anthropocene

Pesticide resistance brings looming concern for global food security and threatens financial losses for those dependent on the agricultural economy (Agathokleous et al., 2023).

As of 2014, 954 species around the world have already developed resistance (Tabashnik et al., 2014), including black-grass, which costs the UK £400m a year in crop losses (Varah et al., 2020).

With 9.3 billion people to feed by 2050 (FAO, 2013), close attention to this topic by human geographers is strikingly lacking, but vital.

Despite multispecies actors, such as plants and insects, forming the landscape for pesticide resistance, much of the literature addressing the problem and its solutions focuses on humans.

As such, using grey literature, multispecies ethnography and interviews, this PhD will examine the multispecies relationships entangled within pesticide resistance.

We ignore such multispecies actors at our own risk - reckless consumption of natural resources and development without consideration for our environments has been responsible the disruption of a myriad of planetary boundaries.

Against a backdrop of industrial agriculture as an escalating risk for biodiversity loss and irreversible climate change, I propose a unique contribution to human geography by bringing plants, animals and the non-human world (the more-thanhuman) to the centre of pesticide research.

This PhD examines the relationships between humans and the more-than-human world, and how these are perceived and represented across three, varying agricultural approaches.

By doing so, I aim to uncover how attitudes to the more-than-human have led us to the crisis of pesticide resistance, and how a change in these attitudes could create potential for food-secure multispecies agricultural futures.

Therefore, this research contributes to the vital problem of food security and how it is threatened by pesticide resistance.

With a focus on sustainable agriculture, my research directly contributes to key facets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

It is my hope that my findings - consisting of interviews and participant research on three different farms - can contribute to a shift away from pesticide-dependent agriculture and map the possibilities of new alternatives.

I therefore aspire for this research to support the reports and policy suggestions of bodies such as Pesticide Action Network and The Rainforest Alliance.

Moreover, I hope to shed light on the barriers that farmers face in transitioning to less pesticide-intensive agriculture, alongside the efficacy of possible solutions such as Integrated Pest Management and vertical farming.