That's a very important thing to say. In any such case a risks/returns analysis must be made.

I think it's too simple to just blame the ban on DDT for 20 million malaria deaths, the reasons for dying of malaria are plenty, some within the control of the western world.

But within the context of the article, directly banning azantine could have some negative effects as well, it's not clear why those farmers who use it don't use the Monsanto product instead.

That also raises an interesting question. If Monsanto really does have a directly competing product, why didn't Monsanto come to the aid of Hayes? Not that I'm super liberal or something, but that would be proper capitalism wouldn't it?