Prohibited pesticides in the US are exported to other countries
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Just imagine that the foods that you eat daily, are seriously harmful to your health and the environment. But, instead of gently destroying these products, you knock on your neighbor, and offer them to him at reduced prices. Is it easy for you to imagine this?
But such a scenario is not so fantastic. In the US, after a pesticide is banned for use because of too high risks to human health and nature, corporations are allowed to continue to produce it for export to other countries, even if they are literally hand-fed.
Who, above all, suffers from such a US policy? Those people who live in the Southern Hemisphere and use the drugs banned in the north and unregistered in their countries. As a result, their health and the health of their family members suffer. In similar countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, 25% of the total pesticide production in the world is used, but 99% of the deaths caused by these toxins are recorded here. About 25 million farmers and agricultural workers around the world are annually poisoned by pesticides. At the same time, the worst risk is poorly educated and poor people. Often they are forced to use pesticides without special training and overalls.
Although these poor people suffer most from toxic pesticides, the negative impact of these products is experienced by people around the world. Pesticides know no boundaries. Millions of liters of agrochemicals move freely from country to country, thanks to the globalization of trade, in the form of residual amounts of active substances in products and fibers. They also pollute the air and water system common to all countries. The US Department of Agriculture indicates that about 50% of fresh fruit and 25% of fresh vegetables consumed in the country grow outside of it, while the Food and Drug Administration checks less than 1% of them. If certain pesticides are banned for use within the United States, these toxins will still return to the country, forming the so-called "poisonous circle".
A new documentary film "Toxic Profits" (Toxic Profits) tells about all this. Its authors talk about how US policy in the agrochemical sector affects the lives of millions of people. Alternative controlled by corporations, intensively using pesticides to agriculture, are also shown here. Authors of the film emphasize that on the other side of the world market of pesticides, annually growing by several billion dollars, there are methods of organic agriculture, in most cases more effective and profitable.
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