Rubia Martínez Guevara sprays organic pesticide onto plants in a macro-tunnel. (San Simón, Morazán. November 2022) Photo: Tania Moreno/Oxfam
Recently, more and more news about the appearance and danger of pesticides has been spotlighted by the media in Europe. Not only that it's affecting consumers’ health, but also nature. Europe plays a key role in the pesticides industry. Three of the biggest pesticides producers are European companies. They controlled over 50% of global pesticides market and made revenues of up to EUR 25,3 billion in 2018 alone.
Even though the European Union (EU) has banned the use of most highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) for agriculture in Europe, they can still be produced in Europe for export.
South Africa continues to use 67 banned pesticides imported from the EU. More than 6000 tonnes of the hazardous substances were exported from Rotterdam to Brazil in 2022. Fruits and vegetable that are imported back from Brazil to Europe might likely contain these pesticides. So while the EU protects its domestic market, it's still shipping banned pesticides abroad. A perverse double standard.
On top of this, pesticide use is also driving climate change.
Studies show that pesticides are killing soil life and reducing soil health, causing less carbon sequestration and more greenhouse gasses to the released. In terms of production, 99% of all synthetic chemicals, including HHPs, are derived from fossil fuels. At the same time, climate change impacts are expected to lead to increases in pesticide use, creating a vicious cycle between chemical dependency and intensifying climate change.
Many studies have exposed the harms of pesticides use in the food we consume, not only harming consumers, but also farmers and farm workers. Women on Farms, an Oxfam partner in South Africa, supports women farm workers in South Africa, who have been highly affected by the use of HHPs. Farm workers and small-scale farmers are regularly exposed to HHPs with terrible health impacts.
Pesticides were one of the big issues discussed during Slow Food Conference, Terra Madre 2024, in September 2024. The bi-annual event is often called the "United Nations of farmers." Small-scale farmers, artisanal food producers, and chefs from all over the world join up to discuss alternative solutions to the powerful domination of the agriculture industry. Many farmers want to stop using pesticides, even though it's very difficult for them to do so. Large companies are very powerful and shape the food system so that agro-industrialization policy and associated market demands leave farmers highly dependent on HHPs. Small-scale farmers’ dependence on HHPs is mainly caused by a lack of policy and support for sustainable practices. Powerful agri-business companies continue to dominate policy and decision-making processes, undermining sustainable alternatives, food security, and a just agricultural transition.
Clémence Nibaruta, alongside other smallholder farmers in Burundi, experiments and employs agroecological practices in order to improve their livelihood sustainably and to gain resilience against climate change. (Photo: Jana Schindler/Oxfam)
Many options have been offered to solve the dependence on HHPs and inequality in the food system. One of the solutions that have been proposed in the past few decades is agroecology. Agroecology taps into indigenous peoples and peasants’ community knowledge that has been passed down for thousands of years, and now comes together with new understandings of resilience and sustainability.
At Terra Madre, the theme of agroecology was a hot topic. It is widely accepted by academics, farmers, indigenous peoples, and agriculture experts as a way of achieving food sovereignty for all. The concept offers 13 principles that include, among others, the co-creation of knowledge, fair participation, soil health, and biodiversity.
Agroecology is about relationships and dialogues.
Like any healthy relationship, equality and understanding are key. Food producers and agri-business companies need to understand and accept that nature has its own pace and needs time to recover, which includes soil, water, and all the elements involved in our food production. As consumers, we also need to accept that we cannot always have every food we want in our supermarkets all year long. It also underlines the relationship between consumers and food producers in caring for land and nature. Over the years, the agroecological movement has created a global alliance of communities, both in rural and urban areas, united in advocating and showcasing how agroecological principles can be successfully implemented and create resilient communities that produce enough, without being dependent on agri-business companies.
Both in Europe and the Global South countries today, agroecology has become more popular as grassroot communities are shifting away from the use of HHPs and their dependence on extractive agricultural practices. The need for these shifts is more dire now than ever before, because agroecology helps to restore healthy soils, which is key to achieve climate neutrality, zero pollution, sustainable food provision, and a resilient environment. More than anything, it can take us away from HHPs, which hurt people, the planet, and the climate.
Now more than ever, it is time to implement agroecology on a larger scale.
As we celebrate International Day of No Pesticide Use on 3 December, both consumers and farmers have the opportunity to take action and get involved in the agroecology movement.
