Pesticides: An Expensive Business

Over the last 20 years, the global pesticide market has doubled, reaching 53 billion euros in 2020! Since 1990, the use of pesticides around the globe has increased by 80%! With such massive use, global agricultural production should have made hunger a distant nightmare. But it has not.

 

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In 2020, 2.4 billion men and women still suffered from food insecurity. Based on more than 150 studies and the World Health Organization database, the latest research identified about 385 million unintended pesticide poisonings per year and at least 11 000 deaths among farm workers and peasants – the overwhelming majority happening in the Global South.

And of course, pesticides end up on our plates. No matter the dose, they get mixed up in toxic cocktails and seriously impact our health. Yet, there are no European regulations about that. Watch out for the hangover. To top it all off, pesticides cost society a fortune.

To clean up the water, to treat people who have been poisoned, to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions linked to their manufacturing and intensive use, and even to subsidize the manufacturers of these chemicals.

In 2017, pesticides cost society in the European Union 2.3 billion euros!

Guess how much the industry’s net profits were in the same year? 900 million euros.

And this money accrues to a very small number of actors which make up 3/4 of the pesticide market.

That’s right: pesticides cost society twice as much as they bring into the pesticides

business. In other words, if they had to take on the hidden costs and say goodbye to our subsidies and tax reduction, they would be bankrupt.

So, in order to sidestep the question, the four biggest companies of the sector spend a fortune on lobbying: 10 million euros each year at the bare minimum.

They target the crucial issue of risk assessment and the public structure supposed to protect us, very clever.

pesticides companies are still producing highly hazardous products banned in the European Union and they sell them

In 2018, over 80,000 tons of banned pesticides were exported from the European Union.

And guess what? In addition to the devastating impacts they cause in these countries, those pesticides fly back to Europe afterwards through food imports.

Actually, Europe spends more money on buying pesticides than any other region.

Image caption here.

But the European Commission has promised to set an objective:

a 50% reduction in the use of pesticides by 2030. This is bold… but paradoxical. On the one hand, Member States do not apply the current legislation which requires using chemical pesticides only as a last resort. Secondly, the European Union turns a blind eye to their export to countries in the Global South.

Finally, some Member States have chosen to support the agrochemical industry, mesmerized by the hype about technological solutions such as precision farming and its alleged effects on pesticide use reduction. How practical to keep business going and strengthen their grip on food systems.

It is time to wake up.

We must have the courage to make a strong political choice, now. On the one hand, a polluting, costly model that is concentrated in the hands of a few, and on the other hand, a healthy transition thanks to agroecological farming, driven by citizens and farmers, that would preserve our environment and help us to achieve food sovereignty.

Member States complying with the legislation should be a first step,but we need to be more ambitious! This is why we ask the European Union to commit to :

  • Set highly ambitious targets for the reduction of pesticides use,and respond to the call of 1.2 million EU citizens by planning a complete phase-out
  • Promote agroecology rather than relying solely on the digitalization of agriculture.
  • Stop intoxicating the Global South by putting an end to banned pesticides exports, contaminated food imports and the most hazardous pesticides, globally.

It is up to us to show them the way.

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