Pesticides poison several hundred million in agriculture every year.

Between 402 and 433 million cases of pesticide poisoning occur in agriculture every year. Assuming that each case involves one individual, this means that almost half of the world’s 934 million farmers become ill from poisoning every year. Around 11,000 die from the poisoning. This is shown by a new study published in Frontiers in Public Health. “We can no longer accept that the people who work in the fields and grow our food are exposed to harmful pesticides and become ill,” says Susan Haffmans of the German branch of the NGO Pesticide Action Network (PAN), which commissioned the report, in a press release. The problem is particularly widespread in developing countries, where many farmers have neither the necessary training nor the safety equipment needed to use pesticides. In addition, they use more products that are banned in the EU but are nevertheless produced and exported by us to developing countries. Critics—including then-Minister for the Environment Magnus Heunicke (S)—have wanted to put a stop to this, but legislation has yet to be passed. You can do something As a consumer, there is something you can do—even here in Denmark—if you want to help solve the problem. “If you want to be sure that you are not contributing to the negative impact of pesticides on agricultural workers, one solution is to buy organic products,” says Jørgen E. Olesen, a professor at the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University, who was not involved in the study. Products such as coffee, chocolate, citrus fruits and spices come from developing countries. In these cases, consumers can look for Denmark’s red Ø organic label or the EU’s green organic leaf, which means that synthetic pesticides may not be used in production and that the production is subject to organic certification controls. A previous study of farmers in Costa Rica and Uganda showed that organic farming can reduce exposure to pesticides more than training and safety equipment can. On the basis of this finding, the researchers argued in favour of promoting organic agriculture. The figure may be an underestimate The new study includes poisoning data from a total of 139 selected countries. Most of the studies included focused on work-related poisonings, particularly among farmers and agricultural workers. The study covered data from 2006 to 2023. The number of poisonings may even be an underestimate, because the study does not take into account the exposure faced by the approximately 84 million children who also work in agriculture. Nor did it examine long-term health consequences, as it looked exclusively at acute poisoning cases. “There has been a great deal of focus on these pesticide accidents in the media in both Uganda and Tanzania,” says Sigrid Soelberg Vestergaard. She is a project manager at the Organic Denmark association, which currently has close cooperation with partners in the two African countries. For more than 15 years, the association has worked in several African countries to promote organic farming methods, enabling farmers to become independent of harmful pesticides and expensive chemical fertilisers. “There is no regulation of pesticides, and the injuries you see are terrible. At the same time, pesticides also deplete the soil,” she says. Helping farmers with organic methods Organic Denmark has introduced the concept of “Family Farmer Learning Groups,” in which selected farmers are taught organic methods and trained to teach others in their local communities. Each of them is then responsible for leading groups of an average of 28 local farmers, who meet regularly to share knowledge and discuss problems. “In our programme partnerships, we see that families become healthier when they farm organically. Not only are pesticide injuries reduced, but the soil becomes more fertile when organic methods are used and synthetic pesticides are abandoned. Families increase their yields and achieve greater diversity in the types of crops they grow. We can see in concrete terms that they go from one to three daily meals and, in the long term, achieve higher incomes because production enables them to sell to local markets,” explains Sigrid Soelberg Vestergaard. That is precisely why, she says, it is important that consumers here at home also remember to demand products produced organically outside Denmark and Europe. “It is extremely important, because it is an area where people can make a concrete difference. It has enormous significance for the people who produced the food whether, when shopping, you choose to put organic bananas, coffee, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon, cocoa and so on in your basket. Organic farming in the tropics is a huge lever for improving these people’s living conditions. Organic farming is not only about animal welfare and pesticides, but also about greater global justice,” she says. Retail chains also have a responsibility In any event, the authorities should improve their regulation of which products are permitted on the market, Jørgen E. Olesen believes. “If we really want to do something for these population groups, the international community should ensure that the most dangerous pesticides are removed from the market entirely,” he says, while also pointing out that grocery chains have a responsibility for what they import and sell to customers. Thomas Roland, head of consumer policy at Coop, agrees that the retail chains also bear responsibility. In an email to Økologisk Nu, he writes that Coop’s product requirements explicitly prohibit growers from using pesticides that are not legal in the EU. “And our requirements regarding both environmental conditions and working conditions—including requirements for third-party audits of conditions at suppliers—should ensure that we do not contribute to pesticide poisoning among workers in the value chain,” he writes, continuing: “As a supermarket, we clearly have a responsibility to impose requirements that help reduce consumption. That is why Coop has, among other things, halved the official maximum residue limits for pesticides and set a maximum number of pesticide residues that we will accept. In other words, we have stricter requirements for our suppliers and their products than EU legislation otherwise stipulates.” Salling Group did not respond to our inquiry. NGOs call for more organic farming Several national branches of the NGO PAN have also responded to the new poisoning figures. In addition to the aforementioned German branch, the British branch, PAN UK, has also reacted and is now calling on the British government to take action: Both the government and private companies should phase out the most dangerous pesticides—highly hazardous pesticides—from all agriculture by 2035 and support farmers in switching to safer farming methods such as organic agriculture. PAN UK is also calling on all European countries to ban the production and export of pesticides that are prohibited from use in their own countries. The organisation also believes that imports of food sprayed with the illegal chemicals should be banned. Jayakumar Chelaton, director of PAN India, points out that it is hard-working people and families who pay the price for pesticide use. “South Asia bears an enormous burden, as extremely hazardous pesticides such as paraquat contribute to devastating poisoning cases. This study reveals a crisis that can no longer be ignored. The study puts a human face on a crisis that is too often overlooked and makes it clear that safer, non-chemical alternatives must be prioritised when we grow our food,” he says in a press release. According to the organisation Parkinson’s Europe, there is now “overwhelming evidence” that Parkinson’s disease is an environmentally caused illness, and an increasing amount of evidence suggests that exposure to pesticides increases the risk of developing the disease, which damages the brain over time. France, Italy and Germany have now recognised Parkinson’s disease as an occupational disease in agriculture. The article was written as part of the ESFROMA project, supported by CISU—the Civil Society in Development advisory service.