The Big 4-the global pesticide and seed monopolists-continue to produce thousands of tons of EU-banned agrotoxics in Belgium and 8 other European countries for export to other continents.
A poisonous business that harms both the third countries that import and use these toxic chemicals and for the Europeans who buy back from these countries various foods-e.g., cereals, legumes, tea, nuts-contaminated by them.
Six international solidarity organizations (SOS Faim, Broederlijk Delen, FIAN, Iles de paix, Viva Salud and Entraide et Fraternité) conducted a study to shed light on Belgium’s role in exporting banned pesticides. (1) And they are clamoring to make it right.
European illegal pesticides in 85 countries
More than two thousand (2,072) active substances used in the production of pesticides are banned or regulated, in the EU, with extreme stringency (reg. EU 649/2012, Annex 1). The European Union, nonetheless, continues to allow its production in the EU for the purpose ofexport to non-EU countries where legislation is less attentive to health and biodiversity.
An investigation by Public Eye and Unearthed, the investigative unit of Greenpeace Great Britain, reveals that as many as 81,000 tons of pesticides banned in the EU were exported to 85 countries in 2018. (2) Of this shipment of poisons, 5,000 tons, or 6 percent, were produced in Belgium.
Poisons made in Belgium
The study by the six Belgian NGOs shows that between 2013 and 2020 Belgium exported to more than 70 countries 16 active substances for agricultural use banned in the EU totaling nearly 50,000 tons.
The authors of the study point out the indecency of this trade in toxic active substances, which in the target countries:
- compromises food security and resilience of food systems, especially in this perma-crisis, as pointed out already in a report by iPES Food, (3)
- exacerbates unfair competition among farmers in different countries and helps perpetuate a fossil fuel-based agricultural model,
- is contrary to Belgium’s and the EU’s international commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals in UN Agenda 2030,
- Nullifies the EU’s credibility with respect to strategies Green Deal e
Farm to Fork
, - exposes the health of populations and the environment, in countries of production as well as those of destination, to unacceptable risks.
Devastation of health and environment
The toxic chemicals in question are banned in the EU because of their carcinogenic, mutagenic and reproductively toxic effects. In fact, these are substances classified as CMRs (Carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic for reproduction. CMR substances), dangerous first of all-and not only-for their primary users, farmers and agricultural workers.
In the Philippines, however, carbendazim, produced in Ougrée in Liege province, is sold freely online and offline. In 2018, the Arysta chemical industry exported 15t, or 30,000L of finished product (Goldazim, etc.) there. This molecule causes genetic abnormalities and harms fertility. And it persists in the environment. Traces of this product, banned in Europe since 2009, are still found in 93 percent of Europe’s 29 waterways (2019).
The bee massacre
Another bazooka is insecticides, which exterminate bees and mow down biodiversity.
The thiamethoxam (with imidacloprid and clothianidin) is one of three neonecotinoid insecticides banned in the EU as of April 27, 2018 because they are lethal to bees. (4) A ban moreover strengthened by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which on January 19, 2023 clarified the ban on member states allowing pesticides to be used in derogation of EU bans. (5)
The reason for such thoughtfulness (in the EU alone) is that this systemic insecticide-used in the tanning (coating) of seeds-spreads throughout the plant, down to the pollen and nectar of the flowers, which become toxic to pollinators. It is also estimated that 90 percent of the coating substance leaks into the environment and persists there for several years. (6)
Rivers of Poison
The quantities of active substances produced represent a potentially large area treated and volume of ‘finished’ pesticides.
The 10.5 tons of flufenoxuron exported in 2020 is enough to treat nearly 1,400,000 hectares of soybean crops, an area larger than the Flemish region.
In the case of thiamethoxam, the 153 tons of the active substance exported by Syngenta to Brazil-home to much of the world’s biodiversity-is enough to manufacture more than a million liters of finished product.
Boomerang effect on European consumers
Substances banned in Europe and exported to third countries, as it turns out, often return to our tables. (7) In 2020, 74 banned active substances were found in 5,800 samples of food products imported into the EU.
More than 1,600 of those samples revealed the presence of carbendazim, which, as mentioned, causes genetic abnormalities and harms fertility. The most affected foods are tea (48-65% of samples tested) and tropical fruits (papaya, guava, etc.).
Worthless formalities
The six NGOs also point out that the practice of exporting pesticides illegal in Europe to non-EU countries violates international commitments.
‘The Rotterdam Convention, which regulates trade in some of these substances, particularly by imposing a prior informed consent (PIC) mechanism, does not achieve its objectives, which is to regulate trade in chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from possible harm.’
At the European level, in addition to export notification, EU Regulation 649/2014 encourages EU states to exchange information and share responsibilities when trading hazardous chemicals with third countries in order to protect human health and the environment from possible harm (Art 1. b of 649/2012).
European states, moreover, as well as any other state party to the Basel Convention, have a legal obligation to ban the export of banned or unapproved pesticides to states that define them as hazardous waste, based on their international legal obligations from the Bamako Conventions or the Central American Agreement
‘.
Human rights abuses
The much-vaunted focus on human rights of champions of greenwashing stumbles into the peddling of dangerous pesticides that attack basic human rights. Right to life and health, safe and healthy food, healthy environment, labor rights, etc.) beyond EU borders.
‘In her report on human rights and pesticides, Rapporteur Right to Food Task Force, Hilal Elver, argues that exposing people in other countries to dangerous pesticides is a clear violation of human rights. He recommends that states end this hypocrisy of ‘double standards.
In 2020, the Special Rapporteur on Toxic Substances and Human Rights, supported by 35 other UN human rights experts, explicitly called on states to stop exporting unwanted toxic chemicals to poorer countries,’ the six NGOs recall. (8)
EU Green Deal à la carte
The credibility of the EU, Belgium and other countries involved falters in the face of the double standard of agrotoxics. Where an EU Green Deal is proposed à la carte, to apply at home, except exporting the profitable poisons elsewhere.
Inconsistency is also evidenced in Belgium’s membership in the International Coalition for Agroecology.
‘Instead of promoting innovation by pointing to a clear direction based on scientific consensus, this trade freezes the industry in a past embodied by these substances that have sometimes been banned for many years.’
Few rules and a lot of marketing
Low- or middle-income countries receive nearly 75 percent of banned but exported active substances from the EU. Often they have not yet developed adequate rules-or have deliberately deregulated (e.g., Brazil)-the use of agrotoxics. Without any regard to worker training and access to protective equipment.
It is no coincidence that nearly all pesticide-related deaths (more than 385 million poisonings a year, including 11,000 deaths) occur in countries of the global South. And in these areas the pressure exerted by agrochemical giants on policy is particularly ‘effective’.
Double standard, Enough!
Civil society – starting with the organizations that published the dossier under review, which we join – is calling on the EU and Belgium to put an end to this unacceptable double standard. Enough! Sustainable development must come shared internationally, in keeping with the commitments made by the European Commission itself in the Farm to Fork strategy.
‘The Commission It will also promote global safety and sustainability standards, including leading by example and encouraging a consistent approach to ensuring that hazardous substances banned in the EU are not produced for export‘ (Green Deal, Commission adopts new chemicals strategy, towards a free environment. European Commission, press release October 14, 2020).
Marta Strinati
Cover image from Camille Lafrance et Marie Toulemonde. [Infographie] Algérie, Maroc, Tunisie: quand l’Europe exporte ses pesticides toxiques au Maghreb. Jeune Afrique. https://www.jeuneafrique.com/1167663/societe/infographies-le-maghreb-victime-des-pesticides-toxiques-europeens/. 6.5.21
Notes
(1) Interdits Ici. Exportés là-bas. Mortels partout. Le rôle de la Belgique dans l’exportation de pesticides interdits https://stop-pesticides.be/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Resume-pesticides_FR_WEB.pdf
(2) Public Eye. Néonicotinoïdes L’UE exporte des milliers de tonnes de ” tueurs d’abeilles ” interdits sur son sol https://www.publiceye.ch/fr/thematiques/pesticides/lue-exporte-des-milliers-de-tonnes-de-tueurs-dabeilles-interdits-sur-son-sol
(3) Marta Strinati. Rising prices and food crisis in wartime. Background in iPES FOOD report. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 10.5.22
(4) Julia Torre. Neonicotinoids, EU bans three. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 2.5.18
(5) Dario Dongo, Alessandra Mei. Pesticides, Court of Justice stop to national derogations to EU bans. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 4.2.23
(6) Marina De Nobili, Dario Dongo. Neonicotinoids, investigation of pesticide lobbies. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 7.7.20
(7) Marta Strinati. PAN Europe’s complaint: skipping the shield against pesticides in imported food. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 26.6.21
(8) Dario Dongo. Homicidal pesticides and ecocides, new UN report. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 13.3.17
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
