Pesticides kill one person every 2 days in Brazil, report says

A report released Thursday (April 28th) by the Friends of the Earth Europe network of environmental organizations makes a serious complaint: one person dies from death every two days. poisoning by pesticide in Braziland about 20% of these victims are children and adolescents up to the age of 19. According to the text, this disaster is the result of actions by European agrochemical companies such as Bayer and Basf, with the support of the Brazilian agribusiness lobby.

The document states that these European companies, together with Syngenta, which is now owned by the Chinese state-owned ChemChina, they have already spent around €2 million (equivalent to R$10.5 million) “To increase market access for some of the most harmful pesticides by joining forces with Brazilian agribusiness associations.”

The European organization says the millionaire lobby aims to support a legislative agenda aimed at “undermining indigenous rights, repealing environmental protection measures and legitimizing deforestation.” The ultimate goal will be the ratification of a trade deal between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur, which will increase exports of crops to Europe and at the expense of heavy imports of hazardous agrochemicals into Brazil.

How does the lobbying of European companies in Brazil work?

According to a trade expert at Friends of the Earth Europe, Audrey Changoe, co-author of the study with Brazilian Larissa Bombardi, a researcher on pesticide use at the USP (University of São Paulo), the European corporate-funded lobby has been successful. According to experts, Pesticide use in Brazil has increased sixfold over the past 20 years.

Last year alone, a record number of new pesticides were approved in Brazil: 499. The report states that during President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) government, Bayer and Basf jointly approved 45 new pesticides. 19 of them contain substances banned in the EU.

As a result, the Friends of the Earth report recommends that EU member states reject the deal with Mercosur, as the trade the treaty promotes is “fundamentally at odds” with the European bloc’s own environmental goals. The document also suggests that the EU is replacing its support for pesticide-intensive monocultures with a sustainable, pro-nature model focused on human-centred agriculture.