The use of agricultural pesticides in wealthy countries is on the decline as people are waking up to its potentially devastating effects; however, for low- and middle-income countries, pesticide use continues to increase. Wreaking havoc on human health and the environment, widespread application of these toxic chemicals – some of which are closely related to chemical weapons like Sarin – is violating the human rights of millions across the globe.
Though exact figures are unavailable, an analysis of WHO data by public health experts suggests that hundreds of millions of people may suffer debilitating non-fatal effects from exposure to pesticides each year, and more than 200,000 die from acute poisonings. Of these fatalities, 99% occur in developing countries, and those most likely to be harmed include farmers, Indigenous communities, pregnant women, and children. The alarmingly disproportionate impact on these groups revealed by these figures is what led UN experts to announce that pesticides were a “global human rights concern” in 2017. Four years later, the situation remains grave.
GLOBAL IMBALANCE
The issue is rife across areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where agricultural production of major global commodities such as soy, palm oil, and cotton has boomed in recent years. To keep up with demand, farmers are increasingly relying on the unsustainable and, in the long run, counterproductive practice of using large quantities of chemical pesticides to maximise their yields.
Since the early 1990s, India has increased its pesticide use by around 50%, Bangladesh by roughly 500%, and Burkina Faso - having started with a low base level - has increased its use by almost 5000%. For people living in these countries, where health, safety, and environmental regulations are often much weaker than those of richer nations, the consequences can be catastrophic.
In 2013, an incident in Bihar, India made global headlines when 23 school children died and many more fell ill after eating food contaminated with Monocrotophos. This is an insecticide so toxic that, if ingested even in small amounts, can cause vomiting, muscle weakness and respiratory failure leading to death. This tragedy highlights that both the volume of pesticides being used globally, and the types of chemicals in circulation are cause for concern.
Further to this, multibillion-dollar agrochemical companies - like the German chemical giant Bayer and United States (US) based Corteva - exploit trade loopholes by using what experts describe as “aggressive, unethical marketing tactics” to make huge profits from selling dangerous pesticides to developing nations that are in fact banned for use in their home countries.
THE CASE OF BRAZIL
Brazil outranks all other countries in both its total consumption of pesticides, and its use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHP). In 2018, the nation consumed over 60,000 tonnes of HHPs, all of which were deemed too dangerous for use in the European Union (EU). Under the leadership of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, the situation has worsened. As a tenacious ally to large-scale agribusiness, Bolsonaro broke records in 2019 when he oversaw the import of 335,000 tonnes of pesticides and approved 474 new products for use in Brazil. Included on this list were products that contained chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, and infertility such as Atrazine and Carbendazim.
In light of this, it is unsurprising that an “epidemic of poisonings” has swept across the nation. Those inevitably worst affected are predominantly rural and Indigenous communities living in close proximity to agricultural sources. Bolsonaro’s systematic dismantling of environmental regulations has served only to exacerbate the problem, as an increasing number of soy plantations have been built on previously protected reservations.
In a revealing report by Human Rights Watch, a man from the Indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá community recounted that “you feel a bitterness in the throat. You don’t want to breathe poison anymore—you want to breathe another type of air—but there isn’t any”. Also in the report, a teacher from a small village in North-Eastern Brazil described being forced to send her class of young children home after pesticides were dropped from a plane close to their school, causing their gums and eyes to burn.
Even beyond Brazil’s borders, as far as the US and Europe, individuals could be being exposed to trace amounts of the same HPPs. As one of the world’s leading exporters of consumables like beef, soy, coffee and orange juice, Brazil’s escalating pesticide dependence is truly a global issue.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Some progress has been made to tackle this problem. In October 2020, the European Commission committed to ending the export of pesticides that are banned for use in the EU. Whilst this is a significant first step, Europe’s biggest exporter of banned pesticides – the UK – is not bound by these regulations due to its exit from the EU in January 2020. Experts suggest that without more robust international regulations to force the hands of unscrupulous world leaders and multinational pesticide manufacturers, the problem will persist.
Due to the myriad of harmful short- and long-term effects on human health and the environment, a 2017 United Nations report called for a substantial global reduction in all chemical pesticide use, not just HHPs. Denouncing the “myth” proliferated by the agrochemical industry that food security depends on pesticides, Hilal Elver, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, instead promotes the use of agroecology.
As an umbrella term for nature-based, sustainable farming practices, agroecology involves utilising organic techniques such as crop rotation and soil fertility management to increase yields. Not only would this greatly reduce the scourge of poisonings around the world, it could also help to tackle several other human rights issues such as climate breakdown and biodiversity loss.
Kate Williams has a master’s degree in Security, Conflict and Human Rights from the University of Bristol and earned her undergraduate degree studying Zoology at Cardiff University. Her interests and expertise centre on human rights and environmental issues, with a particular focus on UK climate policy.