Brazil’s agricultural sector is on the rise. By the same token, so is its pesticide use. According to the Brazilian Association of Collective Health (Abrasco), there has been an increase of 162.32% in the volume of pesticides in Brazil between 2000 and 2012.(1)
In 2009, Brazil earned the title of the world’s largest consumer of pesticides, superseding the United States. Many of the pesticides used in Brazil are banned in more developed countries due to health concerns. Approximately four major pesticide manufactures, including U.S. FMC Corp., Denmark’s Cheminova A/S, Helm AG of Germany and Swiss agribusiness Syngenta AG, sell products in Brazil that cannot be sold where they are produced.(1)
Pesticides are linked to a host of ailments. Long-term health problems from pesticide exposure include cancer, fertility and birth defects, among many others. Children are especially vulnerable to pesticide exposure, since their organs, immune system and nervous are still developing.
An estimated 22 of 50 active ingredients used in Brazil are banned in others countries. Some of the pesticides used include acephate, acifluorfen, cyanazine, endosulfan, parathion-methyl, permethrin, profenofos, sethoxydim, thiodicarb, tolifluamide and triazophos, to name just a few.(1,2)
A lot of the food produced and purchased in Brazil violates national regulations. Brazilian regulators fear that the government has not been able to ensure the safe use of these pesticides. For example, in 2013, a crop duster coated a school in central Brazil with insecticide. Consequently, an estimated 30 children and school teachers were hospitalized.(3)
Pesticides are poison no matter how you try to sugar coat them
Despite these concerns, pesticide manufactures argue that just because a pesticide is banned in one country does not mean it is unsafe in another country. Nevertheless, poison is poison, regardless of its location. You can’t sugar-coat poison, but you can coat sugar with poison.
The numbers speak for themselves. Since 2007, the Brazilian health ministry has been keeping tabs on the numbers of reported human pesticide poisonings. The report found that the number of pesticides poisonings has doubled within six years, jumping from 2,178 in 2007 to 4,537 in 2013. Annual mortality rates from pesticide poisoning have increased too, from 132 to 206. Public health specialist suspect the actual numbers are likely higher, since many cases often go unreported.(3,4)
Some of these poisonings are from pesticide residue on food that violates government safety standards. Anvisa, Brazil’s federal pesticide evaluation agency, analyzed the amount of pesticide residue on food in Brazil and discovered that, of the 1,665 samples collected, an estimated 29 percent contained pesticide residue that exceeded healthy safety limits.(3)
A corrosive acid
The large-scale use of pesticides is driven by the country’s increased use of genetically modified seeds. Since 2005, the amount of land being used to grow GM seeds has tripled, from 9.4 million to over 32 million hectares.(2)
Biotech companies originally promised that GM seeds would be more resistant to pests, thereby decreasing the amount of pesticides used on crops. In reality, GM seeds have fueled the evolutionary arms race by making crops more resistant to pesticides. As a result, GM crops require not just more pesticides but pesticides that are more potent than those traditionally used.
The havoc that GMO monoculture can have on people and the environment are clearly manifest in Brazil. These poisons act as a corrosive acid that cut and eat everything in their path. One way to prevent these poisons from spreading is to stop these monoculture plantations. If the poison of GMOs continues to spread, genetically engineered crops won’t have a population to feed.
Sources include:
(3) Reuters.com
