The new Pesticide Atlas, published on Tuesday 18 October by the NGOs Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE), PAN Europe and the Heinrich-Böll Foundation, highlights the impact of toxic pesticides on the environment and the health of farmers and consumers in the EU and worldwide.
This Atlas shows in particular:
- that the EU is one of the largest pesticide markets in the world, with almost a quarter of all pesticides sold in its territory, but it is also the largest exporting region, increasingly selling to southern countries where pesticides effectively banned in the EU can be exported;
- that there are about 255 million poisoning accidents in Asia, just over 100 million in Africa and about 1.6 million in Europe;
- that only a very small number of Northern companies (Syngenta Group, Bayer, Corteva and BASF) control about 70% of the global pesticide market;
- that the use of pesticides is fatal for biodiversity: conventionally managed fields have five times less plant species richness and about 20 times less pollinator species richness than organic fields;
- that contrary to company promises, GMO cultivation has increased the use of pesticides such as glyphosate and the growth of resistant weed species.
To consult the Pesticide Atlas: https://aeur.eu/f/3nn (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)