A world free from chemical and toxic substances is possible. The solutions are in our hands. An editorial by the director of Navdanya International, the organisation whose aim is to protect biodiversity and the right to food and seeds.
Multinational corporations are putting our lives and the ecosystem in which we live at risk by exerting undue pressure on the institutions that should instead be protecting people and the environment. The consequences of these insidious mechanisms are plain to see. For this reason, it is essential that the lobbying and corruption strategies and activities of multinational corporations be made public, as happened when the Poison Papers were published (a collection of more than 20,000 documents from chemical industries and federal agencies concerning the toxicity of multiple chemical products, ed.). Before this important revelation, multinationals rarely made the news. And yet, what is becoming ever more apparent is precisely the impact of their "business" on our lives: an increasingly polluted and toxic environment, poor and unhealthy food quality, and a rise in numerous diseases. These consequences are increasingly being attributed to the actions of these companies and to the impact of their activities on public policy.
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The consequences of the behaviour of these multinationals, which we call the Poison Cartel, are becoming more evident with every passing day: small farmers are losing their livelihoods, rural communities are being stripped of their land to make way for industrial agriculture, and biodiversity is disappearing, replaced by monocultures. Consumers are seeing their choices diminish and are being forced to purchase food products containing toxic substances, grown in fields where the soil is increasingly contaminated by chemicals.
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The Navdanya International report "The toxic story of Roundup" highlights on the one hand the destructive practices of the major agribusiness industries, while on the other it sets out the many alternatives to that dominant model of agriculture, which cannot be considered sustainable or ethical from any point of view. On 24 May, Navdanya presented in Rome the dossier "Il veleno è servito – Glifosato e altri veleni: dai campi alla tavola", which describes how the entire process of agricultural industrialisation is built on the false premise that only through this model of intensified production would we be able to feed the world's growing population. In reality, the industrial agriculture model produces only a minimal share of the food consumed globally.
Is a world without poisons possible? We believe it is, and this conviction is what drives us to denounce the dangerous activities of the Poison Cartel. These six multinational groups producing pesticides and GMOs, which hold global control over the agrochemical, biotechnology and seed industries, are consolidating and strengthening their position through mega-mergers and acquisitions. Syngenta is about to join ChemChina, Dow Chemical (which acquired Union Carbide, responsible for the Bhopal disaster that killed more than 20,000 people) is merging with DuPont, while Bayer intends to acquire Monsanto. If all these mergers were finalised, just three groups would control 60 per cent of the global seed market and 70 per cent of the global chemicals and pesticides market.
Over recent decades, these companies — which produced the deadly poisons used during the two world wars — turned their attention to the agricultural market, in which they saw enormous potential to continue multiplying their profits. They expanded their empire and secured monopolies through global free-trade policies and the deregulation of commerce. They extended their control over our seeds, our food, our freedoms and our democracies. In the name of "science", these multinationals born of war have launched fierce attacks on independent science and on independent researchers in order to maintain and increase their power. Indeed, what they call "science" is mere propaganda that brands any biosafety research conducted independently by governments and scientists as "anti-science".
Our most recent studies analyse in detail the strategies used by these companies to profit at the expense of the common good. But what does this mean exactly? These multinationals spread agrochemical poisons freely wherever they can, driving millions of species to extinction, destroying our ecosystems and poisoning the entire web of life.
Glyphosate, in particular, is considered the most widely used chemical in agriculture. Since its introduction to the market, 1.8 million tonnes of glyphosate have been sprayed onto fields in the United States, while globally the figure reaches 9.4 million tonnes. Approximately 56 per cent of the glyphosate used worldwide is linked to Roundup GMO crops (Roundup Ready crops, RR) and has tripled in cotton fields, doubled in soya cultivation and increased by 39 per cent in the case of maize. This trend must be reversed, because we are talking about a technology that has failed in its objective of keeping weeds under control.
In RR crop fields in the United States, there has been a growing and uncontrolled spread of so-called "superweeds", such as pigweed, particularly in the south-eastern states where approximately 92 per cent of RR cotton and soya crops are infested. As a result, farmers have begun to make massive use of pesticides.
Let us now turn to the propaganda of the Poison Cartel. Is it true that these products cause no harm to the environment? This claim has no basis in reality. In a pilot study on soil pollution conducted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and the Dutch University of Wageningen, soil samples were collected in several European countries. The study found traces of pesticides in more than 66 per cent of the samples analysed, while only 34 per cent were free of them. The substances most frequently detected were glyphosate (46 per cent), DDT (25 per cent) and fungicide products (24 per cent). Furthermore, the study highlights how glyphosate and AMPA (Aminomethylphosphonic acid) can become concentrated in very small soil particles that are easily eroded and carried by wind and water, increasing the risk of contamination over long distances as well. Another American geological study collected samples from waterways in 38 US states, finding the presence of glyphosate and AMPA in the majority of rivers, streams, canals and at the outlets of wastewater treatment plants. Glyphosate was also detected in approximately 70 per cent of rainwater samples.
One of the most widespread myths is that "pesticides are rigorously tested". Beyond the fact that only a few hundred of the 80,000 chemical substances used in the United States are subjected to safety testing, regulatory agencies carry out tests only on the active substances of individual pesticides, relying on information provided by manufacturers and avoiding any in-depth investigation into either the toxicity of products in their complete formulation or their combination with other pesticides available on the market that are frequently used both in cultivated fields and in gardens.
To the first objection, the agrochemical industry will respond by arguing that pesticides are necessary to feed the planet. This claim is inaccurate and misleading because, in theory, enough food is produced to meet the nutritional needs of the entire world population, but those who need it most do not receive it owing to the inequity of the production and distribution system. A system that causes 75 per cent of the planet's destruction while providing barely 30 per cent of food requirements, made up essentially of products of extremely low nutritional value and heavily contaminated by toxic chemical substances. The toxic products of the poison cartel, such as Roundup (glyphosate-based), Basta (glufosinate-based) or GMO seeds, have caused the destruction and desertification of soil, the mass killing of bees, and an increase in the incidence of a range of diseases, including cancer and birth defects, to name but two.
Let us focus on the facts. As Hans Herren of the Biovision Foundation suggests, "60 per cent of what we have on our plates depends on bees". Thus, animals and human beings are equally affected by the negative consequences of pesticides. The 2017 report by United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food Hilal Elver estimates that "pesticides are the cause of death of at least 200,000 people every year, 99 per cent of whom come from countries where environmental, health and occupational safety regulations are not particularly stringent or are poorly enforced". A study commissioned by the European Union on the impact of organic food and farming on human health, which also includes research into the overall impact of pesticides, found that "100 pesticides have negative consequences on the neurological system of adults. From this it can be inferred that all these substances also cause brain damage during the developmental phase". In our report we analysed several studies and cases, from Argentina to Costa Rica and Sri Lanka (where the government banned glyphosate in 2014).
What, then, are the possible solutions? The classic "bottom-up solutions". All over the world, small and medium-sized farmers are already practising ecological and biodiverse farming, renewing soil fertility and saving and developing their own seeds. They provide healthy and nutritious food to their communities, returning the food system to the hands of farmers and consumers and thereby rendering the large agrochemical industry irrelevant and unnecessary, along with its poisons and toxic foods.
During 2016, various groups and organisations held more than 110 people's assemblies in 28 countries around the world, creating a global network strongly committed to building a healthy future for the planet and for the food we eat. The mobilisation, which reached its peak with the People's Assembly and the Monsanto Tribunal, continued to spread throughout 2017. Farming without poisons is possible, and the tools to achieve it are in our hands. As the work of Navdanya over the past thirty years has demonstrated, we can grow enough nutritious food to feed the world's current population twice over. By stopping the purchase of toxic agrochemicals we can increase farmers' incomes tenfold, address the problems linked to malnutrition and chronic disease, and at the same time create a resilient system capable of mitigating climate change.