Brazil’s fundamental pesticide law under attack

Applying pesticides in the field. Brazil is the world’s biggest user of chemical pesticide. Photo by prodbdf on flickr Pesticides are flourishing on fertile economic ground in Brazil, thanks to the large government subsidies and low taxes granted to the companies manufacturing them, the negligible costs for national registration of active chemical ingredients, and virtually nonexistent pesticide use oversight. These and other incentives – plus explosive agribusiness growth – resulted in Brazil achieving a dubious record in 2008, when it became the largest pesticide consumer in the world, according to a Kleffmann Group study commissioned by the National Association of Plant Defense (ANDEF), representing Brazil’s pesticide manufacturers. (Oddly, a negative press response to the study caused ANDEF to deny its own findings  for years.) Number one or not, the national statistics are eye opening. ACCording to IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental protection agency, and other data, chemical pesticide active ingredient sales grew countrywide by 313 percent between 2000 and 2014, rising from 162,461 tons to 508,566 tons. São Paulo, Mato Grosso and Paraná became the major trading states over that period. But even once small pesticide consumers, like Amazonas, Amapá and Acre, saw exponential growth, with use soaring by 1,941 percent, 942 percent, and 500 percent, respectively, in sales per ton between 2005 and 2012 in these Amazon states. Brazilian pesticide consumption and related products (2000 – 2014). Vertical axis: 1,000 tons of active ingredient; horizontal axis: year. Chart courtesy of IBAMA. Data consolidation provided by the registrant companies of technical products, pesticides and the like, according to article 41 of Decree nº 4,074/2002. Updated April 2016…

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