We’re at Peak Pesticide and Silent spring is almost here
Rachel Carson gave the world an important warning in 1962 with the publication of her famous book ‘Silent Spring’. It led to the very necessary ban of DDT and other highly toxic chemicals. But the system didn’t change. Other pesticides were introduced, toxic business went on as usual and the use went up. Pesticide reduction is a myth so far, the sales are higher than ever. We’re at Peak Pesticide and Silent Spring is almost here. We urgently need a paradigm change away from pesticides to avert a total biodiversity crisis and create real food security. We have to strongly reduce pesticide use and start right now. We expose the myth that we are doing well in the EU. We have not reduced pesticide use since 1990. And Europe is one of the world’s leading pesticide exporters.
“Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called “insecticides’, but “biocides’.”
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring P 7-8
“Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted sense of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind? Yet this is precisely what we have done.”
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, P 8-9
Events agenda
During the month, many pesticide related events will take place. Organised live and online, by Friends of the Earth, the Pesticide Action Network and partner organisations. Here is an overview:
- Sep 22: Silent Spring Forum at the Terra Madre event by Slow Food in Torino, Italy with Vicki Assevero, Larissa Bombardi, Claudio Porrini and Martin Dermine (PAN Europe)
- Sep 25: Smoke & Mirrors, Exposing the PR tactics of the pesticide industry online event by PAN UK with journalist Carey Gilliam, author Anna Lappé and Jennifer Jacquet, Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU
- Sep 27: Book date and new PAN Europe report : Pesticide Paradise, how industry and officials protected the most toxic pesticides
- Sep 28: Pesticide Free Towns meeting Mayors in Brussels with Dave Goulson
- Sep 28: “Bees, farmers and young generations, surviving amongst pesticides”
- Online debate 19:00: Thomas Waits (Green MEP) and Johanna Sandahl (president EEB)
- Screening the movie Earth: Muted online from September 28 at 00:00 CEST – 4 October 23:59
- Sep 29: Pesticide Free Town visiting Josephat Park with Mayor of Schaerbeek, Brussels. Park pesticide free since 2003
- Oct 1: Start of Good Food Good Farming Days of Action – Pesticide Check Up + local actions
- Presentation of hair testing + local actions all over Europe. #DetoxEUagriculture
- Oct 6: Science, lobbies and the environment: marking the 60th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Seminar with Naomi Oreskes, Jeroen van der Sluijs, Nina Holland, Andrea Saltelli and Stéphane Foucart, organised by Corporate Europe Observatory and the University of Bergen (Norway)
- Oct 11: Honoring Rachel Carson – the great surprise (stay tuned!)
- Oct 25: Presentation of the Pesticide Atlas, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Friends of the Earth Europe and PAN Europe with MEPs
- Oct 25: Honoring Silent Spring: Stories from the frontline in the fight for a Pesticide-free Future, online event by Friends of the Earth International, with Kendra Klein, Anna Lappé, Angel Garcia and Carey Gilliam, 19 – 20.30 Central European Time, register here
- Oct 26: Hybrid event on pesticide free nature areas (14:00 – 16:00) with Sarah Wiener (MEP), Carsten Bruhl (University of Koblenz) and Koen Hertoge (PAN Europe)
- Oct 27: Good Food Good Farming action in Brussels
Main issues and resources
- There is no reduction in pesticides use:
- Pesticides use – Global, regional and country trends 1990–2018 – FAOSTAT Analyticial Brief 16
- Locked-in pesticides – Europe’s dependency on harmful pesticides and how to overcome it – Foodwatch June 2022
- Alternatives do exist, see for example this overview of good practices in Integrated Pest Management (IPM):
- Mapping good agronomic practices and alternatives to pesticides in Europe – Presentation by PAN Europe and IBMA
- The profits of pesticides sales are for the industry and retailers, the costs for society are high:
- Pesticides: a model that’s costing us dearly – Le Basic November 2021
- Industry has control over regulations and spreads false information:
- A loud lobby for a silent spring – Corporate Europe Observatory, March 2022
- Industry writing it’s own rules – PAN Europe and Générations Futures, Januari 2018
- Silent Spring is close, biodiversity collapse:
- Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production – IPBES 2016
- More than 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas – Caspar A. Hallmann et al, 2017
- Recognizing the quiet extinction of invertebrates – Eisenhauer et al. 2019
- Soil biodiversity and human health– Wall et al. 2015
- Citizens are fed up with pesticides:
- New film ZUT, Zones Urgentes à Transformer– September 2022
- Transformation of the food system is urgent:
- We need a food system transformation – in the face of the Ukraine war, now more than ever – Call by 600 scientistst in 2022
