Title: Spilling Europe’s dirty secrets: Uncorking the toxic trade in banned pesticides
[arc2020.eu] -- Pesticides deemed too toxic for Europe are still being produced and sold abroad to countries such as Australia where they are sprayed onto fields where farm workers live, work, and raise their children – but these are also fields that help feed Europe. What is the human cost behind Europe’s toxic trade in banned pesticides? And, as the EU looks at ways to realign its trade standards, why does it continue to put profit over people? To uncork this double standard, ARC2020’s Natasha Foote reports from the ground in South Africa.
“What have we done? What have we done?” a chorus of powerful voices chants from the corner of the conference centre. Moving in a procession, signs hang around the women’s necks bearing words like ‘Dormex’, ‘Paraquat’ and ‘Terbufos’. Hoisted on their shoulders is a cardboard box, shaped like a coffin.
These names might not be familiar to you, but they are all too familiar to the South African farm workers carrying them. All are pesticides deemed too dangerous for Europe, yet all are routinely used in the country’s world-renowned vineyards.
The “we” here could mean many things. It could be the South African government, who continue to turn a blind eye to labour violations on farms. It could be the wealthy landowner ‘boers’ (farmers) who continue to force farm workers to use these chemicals on their land, often without protective gear. It could be the farm workers themselves, often unaware and uninformed of the risks that these substances carry.
But “we” could equally be us in Europe, where many of these toxic pesticides come from.
Because it is European companies that produce and profit from these banned chemicals, which are sold beyond Europe’s borders. EU authorities then allow the food – or, in South Africa’s case, wine – to be imported back to Europe’s supermarket shelves.
The impact is as chilling as the timbre of the farm worker’s voices, because it is these women and their families who bear the consequences of this toxic trade.
Now, they are fighting back with a clear message for both their own government and for those beyond their borders – enough is enough.
And this is how, on a rainy March day gathered in the heart of South Africa’s wine region, a group of farm workers, activists, researchers gathered together for a so-called "People’s Tribunal on Agrotoxins" ...
Article: WeedsNews6872 (permalink) Categories: :WeedsNews:trade, :WeedsNews:economics, :WeedsNews:human rights, :WeedsNews:health Date: 2 May 2025; 1:13:41 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time
