PLEASE HELP! Poisonous food, who wants it? No-one who’s got any sense. Yet most of us are eating food laden with pesticides every day, will-he nill-he. All at the expense of the natural environment. It’s time for change, and you can help: Support the campaign to make Europe pesticide-free!
Our supply of healthy food largely depends on pollinators, and we are losing them at hair-raising rates. We can’t afford this. On Monday 25th November a consortium of European organizations launched the campaign ‘Save Bees and Farmers’. The petition is a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), organized according to the strict rules of the European Commission (EC). If a million people sign, by law the EC has to give serious consideration to the demands outlined in the petition, and decide what action to take. You can read the background to the campaign here.
Beneficial insects of all kinds, including pollinators, are being exterminated by massive use of chemical pesticides on farms, woodlands, parks, gardens, also in public and private buildings. The alarming increase in pesticide use over the last few decades has been accompanied by an equally alarming rise in human health problems, many of which have been shown to have links to pesticides like glyphosate. Neonicotinoid insecticides are a particular concern, with many scientific studies showing their harmfulness, and concerted campaigning to stop or at least restrict their use.
On Tuesday November 26th some 10,000 farmers with 5,000 tractors descended on Berlin to gather at the Brandenburg Gate in protest against new measures aiming to restrict the use of chemical pesticides and artificial fertilizers. The changes have been prompted by rational concerns about the damage to human health and the natural environment caused by so-called ‘conventional’ farming methods. The farmers view the changes as damaging to their interests, as they fear they will not be able to produce food at competitive prices without chemicals. A parallel protest for similar reasons was staged by French farmers the following day, Wednesday 27th November.
The farmers’ protests looked like military parades with their large vehicles lumbering alongside the people on foot in tidy lines. Conventional farming is akin to war, based as it is on the principles that ‘enemies’ have to be destroyed and nature has to be manipulated and forced into submission, so that perfect-looking crops can be produced in the maximum possible quantity, preferably with the least possible manpower. Profit margins take precedence over all else.
Wars waged against nature are unwinnable. Conventional farming doesn’t have to be the norm. It’s as bad for farmers as it is for bees – and us. Poisoned food is not the answer to world hunger. The best viable alternative for people and the environment alike is organic farming. There is an ever-increasing demand for organic products, therefore they have a potential market which will expand as more organic products become available. There is growing awareness among consumers that current farming practices are harmful and untenable: the ECI petition to ban glyphosate garnered a million signatures ahead of its deadline, and the current petition for pesticide-free Europe has already raised close to 79,000 in just under five days since the campaign was launched.
Farmers deserve to earn a decent living. Poisons don’t qualify as decent. We hope all farmers will come to recognise that pesticide-free practices are for their own good as well as ours. How long will it take them to break free from the smooth talk and slick marketing of the agrochemical companies? At all events it will take time for farming practices to be changed for the better. A lot of adjustment is needed. It takes years for contaminated soil to be freed from the effects of pesticides. The campaign sets a deadline of 2030 for eliminating the deadliest of the pesticides, and 2035 for Europe to be completely free of synthetic pesticides. It can be done, with persuasion from all of us who care about human and environmental wellbeing.
If you believe in a healthy future for Europe PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!
Vivian Grisogono is President of the Croatian registered charity Eco Hvar, which is one of the supporting organizations for the ECI petition for a pesticide-free Europe
