On March 8th, the UN human rights council made public a scathing report which is very clear: pesticides, many of which contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), are harmful to human health and the environment and they are used in the service of industry profit, not to combat world hunger as agro-chemical business leads us to believe.
The UN accused global corporations that manufacture pesticides of aggressive, unethical marketing tactics and heavy lobbying of governments which obstruct reforms and restrictions on pesticides. The notion that pesticides are essential to feed a fast-growing global population is in fact a myth according to UN food and pollution experts.
The report says that pesticides have disastrous impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole, and that certain groups such as farmers, Indigenous communities, pregnant women and children are at elevated risk of serious abuses regarding the right to health and a clean environment. Global corporations consistently deny the science that points to the harms of using these pesticides to grow foods.
The report tells how, “Few people are untouched by pesticide exposure. They may be exposed through food, water, air, or direct contact with pesticides or residues.”(1) - This is of course a serious concern as pesticide exposure has been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, hormone disruption, developmental disorders and sterility.
Read the report here. Let’s hope that this bombshell will be taken seriously and not just shelved!