The country has a total of 2300 pesticides approved. UN says that every year 200 thousand people die of acute intoxication by this kind of product. Brazil ranks 44th in pesticide’s use

Rafaela Polo

With the increase of production and commercialization of organic products, free of pesticides and because of that healthier and more natural, it was expected that the use of pesticides would suffer a drop, right? Not in Brazil. In the last three years, there was a growth in the registers of pesticides in the country. In 2016, 300 new authorizations were signed, in 2017 there were 400 more and in 2018 the number got closer to 500.

According to G1, in five months the new federal government approved 239 new pesticides – 48% of them considered highly or extremely toxic. According to the publication, the Agriculture Federal Department claims that 52% are copies of active principles already used and 28% generic forms of products already authorized. The government maintains that none of it is “brand new”.

Today Brazil allows 2300 pesticides placing the country in the 44th position in the ranking of the highest consumers of these products (behind Portugal and Netherlands). In 2018, the now agriculture minister Tereza Cristina, then a member of the congress, led the approval of the law project 6299/2002, nicknamed “Pec do Veneno” (something like “poison package). In June this year, Anvisa published an official note against this initiative. “Anvisa is against the proposal for a substitute  law project (PL) 6299/02, which deals with the registration, inspection and control of pesticides in the country and which removes from the agency, in practice, the competence to carry out toxicological and environmental reevaluation of these products. For Anvisa, the PL does not contribute to the improvement, availability of safer food or new technologies for the farmer and not even to the strengthening of the pesticide regulatory system, thus not serving those who should be the focus of the legislation: the Brazilian population ”, stated in an excerpt from the document, published on the agency’s official website.

At the website Chega de Agrotóxicos (No more pesticides), 1.691.507 people have already signed a petition for the approval of the National Politics to Pesticide Reduction. The goal is to reach 2 million names (sign it here). “Food without pesticides and cultivated in a sustainable and regenerating manner is essential for the perpetuation of human life on earth. Food without poison means a happier, healthier and more dignified life for everyone ”, says chef Bel Coelho, in a statement recorded by the website. “One of the biggest lies of recent times is that with genetically modified seeds and pesticides, we will end hunger in the world”, says chef Paola Carosella.