Our Green Week: Plant protection or environmental pollution?
Channel: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
Date: 2024-02-13

Why the world can no longer afford chemical pesticides

A drastic reduction in the use of pesticides is imperative if we want to avoid the collapse of ecosystems. There is no doubt about this from a scientific perspective. The flora and fauna, the health of people working with pesticides and also the health of consumers would be greatly served by reducing the use of chemical pesticides. Nevertheless, political efforts to reduce the use of pesticides at EU level are being met with enormous resistance from the conservative parliamentary group, the lobby of large agricultural holdings and the pesticide industry.

In November 2023, for example, the European Parliament voted against a the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR). A good proposal was originally on the table, but it was first turned into a toothless tiger by the Conservatives and then voted down. Glyphosate, a carcinogenic toxin according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, has also received renewed EU-wide approval - for a further 10 years. At the same time, the EU is still exporting highly hazardous pesticides to Africa, Asia and Latin America that are banned for use in the EU.

In our event, we will hear the perspectives of experts in the field of pesticides from Germany, Europe, Brazil and Kenya. We will discuss with them the reasons why the urgently needed reduction in pesticides and increased expansion of agroecological farming are only making slow progress and what is needed to initiate a system change.

with
- Martin Häusling, Member of the European Parliament and agricultural policy spokesperson for the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament
- Carsten Rocholl, expert on biodiversity
- Silke Bollmohr, Policy Advisor for Global Agriculture and Food at INKOTA
- Susan Haffmans, Senior Advisor on Pesticides at the Pesticide Action Network Germany
- Larissa Bombardi, Professor of Geography at the University of São Paulo
- Anne Hoge-Becker, Head of Pesticides Division at German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (requested)
- Harun Warui, Program Manager Right to Food and Agroecology at the Heinrich Böll Foundation Nairobi - Video statement

Moderation: Lena Luig, Heinrich Böll Foundation