{"id":88306,"date":"2017-03-13T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=88306"},"modified":"2017-03-08T12:55:08","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T12:55:08","slug":"un-experts-denounce-myth-pesticides-are-necessary-to-feed-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/03\/un-experts-denounce-myth-pesticides-are-necessary-to-feed-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Experts Denounce ‘Myth’ Pesticides Are Necessary to Feed the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Report warns of catastrophic consequences and blames manufacturers for \u2018systematic denial of harms\u2019 and \u2018unethical marketing tactics.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The global pesticides market is worth $50bn and companies lobby heavily to resist reforms and regulations. Photograph: Philippe Huguen\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

7 Mar 2017 – <\/em>The idea that pesticides are essential to feed a fast-growing global population is a myth, according to UN food and pollution experts.<\/p>\n

A new report<\/a>, being presented to the UN human rights council on Wednesday, is severely critical of the global corporations that manufacture pesticides, accusing them of the \u201csystematic denial of harms\u201d, \u201caggressive, unethical marketing tactics\u201d and heavy lobbying of governments which has \u201cobstructed reforms and paralysed global pesticide restrictions\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report says pesticides have \u201ccatastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole\u201d, including an estimated 200,000 deaths a year from acute poisoning. Its authors said: \u201cIt is time to create a global process to transition toward safer and healthier food and agricultural production.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s population is set to grow from 7 billion today to 9 billion in 2050. The pesticide industry argues that its products \u2013 a market worth about $50bn (\u00a341bn) a year and growing \u2013 are vital in protecting crops and ensuring sufficient food supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a myth,\u201d said Hilal Elver, the UN\u2019s special rapporteur on the right to food. \u201cUsing more pesticides is nothing to do with getting rid of hunger. According to the UN Food and Agriculture<\/a> Organisation (FAO), we are able to feed 9 billion people today. Production is definitely increasing, but the problem is poverty, inequality and distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elver said many of the pesticides are used on commodity crops, such as palm oil and soy, not the food needed by the world\u2019s hungry people: \u201cThe corporations are not dealing with world hunger, they are dealing with more agricultural activity on large scales.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new report, which is co-authored by Baskut Tuncak, the UN\u2019s special rapporteur on toxics, said: \u201cWhile scientific research confirms the adverse effects of pesticides, proving a definitive link between exposure and human diseases or conditions or harm to the ecosystem presents a considerable challenge. This challenge has been exacerbated by a systematic denial, fuelled by the pesticide and agro-industry, of the magnitude of the damage inflicted by these chemicals, and aggressive, unethical marketing tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elver, who visited the Philippines, Paraguay, Morocco and Poland as part of producing the report, said: \u201cThe power of the corporations over governments and over the scientific community is extremely important. If you want to deal with pesticides, you have to deal with the companies \u2013 that is why [we use] these harsh words. They will say, of course, it is not true, but also out there is the testimony of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said some developed countries did have \u201cvery strong\u201d regulations for pesticides, such as the EU, which she said based their rules on the \u201cprecautionary principle\u201d. The EU banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides<\/a>, which harm bees, on flowering crops in 2013, a move strongly opposed by the industry. But she noted that others, such as the US, did not use the precautionary principle.<\/p>\n

Elver also said that while consumers in developed countries are usually better protected from pesticides, farms workers often are not. In the US, she, said, 90% of farm workers were undocumented and their consequent lack of legal protections and health insurance put them at risk from pesticide use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe claim that it is a myth that farmers need pesticides to meet the challenge of feeding 7 billion people simply doesn\u2019t stand up to scrutiny,\u201d said a spokesman for the Crop Protection Association<\/a>, which represents pesticide manufacturers in the UK. \u201cThe UN FAO is clear on this \u2013 without crop protection tools, farmers could lose as much as 80% of their harvests to damaging insects, weeds and plant disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plant science industry strongly agrees with the UN special rapporteurs that the right to food must extend to every global citizen, and that all citizens have a right to food that has been produced in a way that is safe for human health and for the environment,\u201d said the spokesman. \u201cPesticides play a key role in ensuring we have access to a healthy, safe, affordable and reliable food supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report found that just 35% of developing countries had a regulatory regime for pesticides and even then enforcement was problematic. It also found examples of pesticides banned from use in one country still being produced<\/a> there for export.<\/p>\n

It recommended a move towards a global treaty to govern the use of pesticides and a move to sustainable practices including natural methods of suppressing pests and crop rotation, as well as incentivising organically produced food.<\/p>\n

The report said: \u201cChronic exposure to pesticides has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer\u2019s and Parkinson\u2019s diseases, hormone disruption, developmental disorders and sterility.\u201d It also highlighted the risk to children from pesticide contamination of food, citing 23 deaths in India in 2013 and 39 in China in 2014. Furthermore, the report said, recent Chinese government studies indicated that pesticide contamination meant farming could not continue on about 20% of arable land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry frequently uses the term \u2018intentional misuse\u2019 to shift the blame on to the user for the avoidable impacts of hazardous pesticides,\u201d the report said. \u201cYet clearly, the responsibility for protecting users and others throughout the pesticide life cycle and throughout the retail chain lies with the pesticide manufacturer.\u201d<\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Damian Carrington is the head of environment<\/a> at the<\/em> Guardian<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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