{"id":4300,"date":"2021-12-03T16:54:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T08:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panap.net\/?p=4300"},"modified":"2021-12-03T16:54:17","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T08:54:17","slug":"un-fao-urged-to-abandon-controversial-pesticide-industry-partnership-more-than-187300-individuals-sign-global-petition","status":"publish","type":"panap_updates","link":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/updates\/un-fao-urged-to-abandon-controversial-pesticide-industry-partnership-more-than-187300-individuals-sign-global-petition\/","title":{"rendered":"UN FAO urged to abandon controversial pesticide industry partnership: More than 187,300 individuals sign global petition"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROME, ITALY\u2014Today, civil society and indigenous peoples organizations delivered more than 187,300 petition signatures<\/a> from over 107 countries to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu, demanding that the FAO end its partnership with CropLife International, an association representing the world\u2019s largest agrochemical companies. The global petition was facilitated by Pesticide Action Network (PAN), Friends of the Earth, SumOfUs, and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).<\/p>\n

In their petition, advocates argued that it is \u201cdeeply inappropriate\u201d for the UN agency to partner with CropLife, whose member companies (Bayer, Syngenta, Corteva Agriscience, FMC and Sumitomo) make around one-third of their sales from Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs), or pesticides that pose the highest levels of risk to health and the environment.<\/p>\n

Recent estimates show that there are 385 million cases of acute unintentional pesticide poisonings each year, up from an estimated 25 million cases in 1990. \u201cThis means that about 44% of farmers and agricultural workers around the world are poisoned each year by an industry dominated by CropLife members,\u201d the petition said.<\/p>\n

PAN Europe, along with other organizations, held a mobilization in front of the FAO headquarters in Rome to accompany the petition delivery and to mark the anniversary of the Bhopal tragedy, also commemorated as World No Pesticide Use Day. Advocates from around the world also participated in a Global Day of Action, including placard protests and a social media rally urging the FAO to stop the #ToxicAlliance.<\/p>\n

“Pesticides have disastrous consequences on people’s health and biodiversity, while science shows agroecology can feed the world in a pesticide-free manner. There is no way FAO can justify its collaboration with CropLife. We will make sure the European Union reacts to this intolerable situation,\u201d said Martin Dermine, Policy officer at PAN Europe, who were among those gathered in Rome to urge the FAO leadership to abandon its controversial pesticide industry partnership.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 187,000 people think that getting into bed with the pesticides industry is a bad move for the FAO. This partnership would turn the FAO into a marketing arm for these toxic companies whose products poison millions of farmers every year,\u201d said Keith Tyrell, Director of PAN United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe partnership between the FAO and CropLife will undermine all efforts made in Africa to ban dangerous pesticides, and will leave the door open to the export of pesticides banned in Europe such as atrazine, paraquat etc. We denounce and strongly reject this \u2018Toxic Alliance\u2019 as it is beset with conflict of interests not known to the public, to the detriment of health protection and environmental preservation,\u201d said Maimouna Diene, coordinator of PAN Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alliance between FAO and CropLife implies a greater influence on public policies by the companies that manufacture and sell pesticides, especially in the most vulnerable countries where the expansion of monocultures and the use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides is favored, which impacts socio-environmental health.\u00a0 On the contrary, FAO and governments should favor agroecological production as the basis of a comprehensive link with the environment to achieve food sovereignty,\u201d said Javier Souza, Regional Coordinator of PAN Latin America (RAPAL).<\/p>\n

\u201cFAO should not jeopardise its integrity and its achievements in agroecology by cooperating with the very industry that is responsible for the production of HHPs that are known to cause severe or irreversible harm to peoples\u2019 health or the environment worldwide. We need a strong FAO, independent from the market interests of global corporations, and which supports the establishment of safe, healthy and sustainable food and farming systems,\u201d said Susan Haffmans, Pesticides Officer at PAN Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot expect that partnering with an association of hundreds of subsidiaries to multinational giants like Bayer and Syngenta \u2013who have vested interests in increasing the sales of their products– will support FAO\u2019s own goals of reducing reliance on pesticides. It is incompatible with FAO\u2019s mandate as a UN institution to protect human rights, including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, which the UN Human Rights Council just recently recognized,\u201d said Simone Adler, Organizing Co-Director of PAN North America.<\/p>\n

The global petition delivery follows letters of appeal submitted by over 350 international civil society and Indigenous peoples\u2019 organizations and 250 scientists and academics last year, after the signing of the partnership agreement between FAO and CropLife in October 2020.\u00a0 A coalition of 11 global organizations, including PAN, followed up with a formal request to meet with Director-General Qu to discuss their concerns, but has not received a response to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is alarming how big business dominates in setting the direction of policymaking, as we have seen with the corporate capture of the UN Food Systems Summit. We expect that CropLife will take full advantage of this partnership with FAO to expand and consolidate corporate control over food and agriculture. We cannot just take it sitting down,\u201d said Sarojeni Rengam, Executive Director of PAN Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n

Pesticide Action Network (PAN)<\/em><\/strong> is a network of over 600 participating nongovernmental organizations, institutions and individuals in over 90 countries working to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. <\/em><\/p>\n

Available for interview:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Martin Dermine, PAN Europe, martin@pan-europe.info<\/a><\/em>
\nSusan Haffmans, PAN Germany, susan.haffmans@pan-germany.org <\/a><\/em>
\nSarojeni Rengam, PAN Asia Pacific, sarojeni.rengam@panap.net <\/a><\/em>
\nJavier Souza Casadinho, PAN Latin America (Spanish), javierrapal@yahoo.com.ar <\/a><\/em>
\nKeith Tyrell, PAN UK, keith@pan-uk.org <\/a><\/em>
\nMaimouna Diene, PAN Africa (French), maimounadiene@pan-afrique.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROME, ITALY\u2014Today, civil society and indigenous peoples organizations delivered more than 187,300 petition signatures from over 107 countries to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu, demanding that the FAO end its partnership with CropLife International, an association representing the world\u2019s largest agrochemical companies. The global petition was facilitated by Pesticide…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4305,"template":"","update_categories":[107],"class_list":["post-4300","panap_updates","type-panap_updates","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_categories-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates\/4300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/panap_updates"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/panap_updates\/4300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"update_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panap.net\/beta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/update_categories?post=4300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}