Soybeans, corn and cotton farms in Brazil have turned the country into the leading market for highly hazardous pesticides, Greenpeace UK's journalism project Unearthed said in a press release on Thursday, citing the findings of a joint investigation with a Swiss NGO
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2020) Soybeans, corn and cotton farms in Brazil have turned the country into the leading market for highly hazardous pesticides, Greenpeace UK's journalism project Unearthed said in a press release on Thursday, citing the findings of a joint investigation with a Swiss NGO.
The investigation was conducted after UN Special Rapporteur Baskut Tuncak's December visit to Brazil, when he criticized the Latin American country's government for triggering "a catastrophic wave of toxic pesticides, deforestation and mining that will poison generations." The official also warned about the high chances of an "epidemic of poisonings by pesticides."
"Brazil's vast plantations of soybeans, corn and cotton have turned it into the world's most important market for highly hazardous pesticides, a joint investigation by Unearthed and the Swiss NGO Public Eye has found," the press release said.
According to Unearthed, the detailed analysis of data regarding over $20 billion worth of agrochemical sales in 2018 established that Brazil, which is considered to be home to 20 percent of the world's remaining biodiversity, was the leading consumer of pesticides highly dangerous for both health and environment.
"Almost two-thirds of this Brazilian highly hazardous pesticide (HHP) spending went on the country's sprawling soybean farms, grown to service a global demand for animal feed for chickens, pigs, cows and fish," the NGO added.
In 2019, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro introduced several measures easing the country's already weak pesticide controls, which contributed to the rapid expansion of soybean cultivation with the use of agro-toxins. Within this context, Nobel prize nominee and world-renowned Brazilian indigenous leader Chief Raoni Metuktire earlier in February called on the UK government to introduce strict trade rules on soybean imports for animal feed. In particular, according to a briefing document, he called for tougher trade rules regarding pesticides on soybeans from the Amazon region.
