Tracking societal concerns on pesticides - a Google Trends analysis

We analyze public interest in pesticides and plant protection products over time utilizing Google Trends data for Switzerland from 2011 until 2019. We find that the aggregated public interest in pesticides and plant protection products has increased substantially in recent years, especially since 2017. This trend can be attributed to search terms related to pesticides, while the interest in search terms related to plant protection products remained stable. Since the term 'pesticides' has a more negative connotation than 'plant protection products', the increased public interest might be linked to a higher negative perception of environment and human health impacts of pesticides. We also find evidence which supports the hypothesis that growing public concerns on pesticide use contributed to the launches of two popular initiatives aiming to restrict pesticide use in Switzerland. At the same time, our results support that the launch of these initiatives amplified public concerns regarding pesticides. We conclude that Google Trends is a useful tool for the timely detection of ongoing environmental and agricultural discussions, which might otherwise be unobserved. Therefore, it can generate helpful insights and contribute to agricultural policy problem framing.