“Two-thirds of Spain’s surface pesticide“, Ecologytas en Acción, Seo/BirdLife and WWF organizations in their latest report in Madrid, with a manifesto It requests the government to reduce the effect of these articles.
The manifesto, titled “Plague of Pesticides Silences Nature”, was accompanied by photojournalist Santi Donaire’s exhibition “Until the Earth Comes”, which captures images of the effects of intensive agriculture on human health and well-being. Environment.
Enrique Segovia, director of conservation at WWF, stressed that pesticides are “a silent plague because they silence nature,” adding that “stop this plague as its negative effects on health, ecosystems and climate are proven“.
Aina Calafat, head of advocacy and international projects at the Spanish Association of Organic Agriculture (SEAE), “The organic sector shows: can be grown in the same way and can do without pesticides“While ensuring food safety.
To him, this means being “responsible for the health of people and also of agricultural workers”.
science-based
Calafat “called on the whole of Spanish society to abide by this manifesto” and declared it All the information on which it is based is “meticulously presented based on the scientific evidence and reports of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)”.
Promoting organizations say “a regulatory framework for the agroecological transition; setting ambitious, binding and measurable targets for the quantitative and qualitative reduction of pesticides and urgent action in highly polluted areas.
Also, organize periodic information campaigns for citizens and ensure transparency and the best available information; develop an integrated management system for expired pesticides; stop issuing exceptional permits for pesticides and systemic air applications; or prohibit the production in Spain of pesticides not authorized in the European Union.
According to Calafat, this requires “transparent and accurate information campaigns that are not at the mercy of personal interests”.
In this sense, Koldo Hernández, coordinator of Ecologas en Acción’s Toxic Field, emphasized: “It is not possible to have a market for banned pesticides” and “No one in Spain currently knows what kind of pesticide is used in their field or region.”
lack of up-to-date data
Hernández denounced the lack of updated data from the authorities and “contradictions since the EU and Spain said in 2020”: Spain has reduced the risk of pesticides by 20%, but has also increased its consumption. and strictly denounced that “banned pesticides are the ones that appear in third place as bestsellers.”
“Most of the time these pesticides are prohibited, but exceptionally allowed.warned, and sometimes this exceptional situation became a routine.
Also for Koldo Hernandez review the monitoring model for this risk and focusing “on their toxicity, not how they are classified legally”, because “a very highly toxic pesticide, comparable to that used in organic farming,” as is currently done.
did you remember that these pesticides “travel also” and although their use is banned in Spain, they can be produced and sold abroad.thus “we transfer the model we do not want in Europe to other countries”.
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Contact address of the environment department: [email protected]