A new web series launched by Phyto-Victimes, a French group supporting victims seeking legal justice and compensation following exposure to health-harming pesticides, brings into focus the long quest for recognition many farmers are forced to undergo in France and elsewhere.
In response to stated plans by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to strengthen ties with a trade association whose members continue to produce highly hazardous pesticides harmful to human health and the environment, HEAL and over three hundred other organizations in over 60 countries have sent a letter to Director-General Qu Dongyu opposing the alliance.
The proposed collaboration with CropLife — whose members include BASF, Bayer Crop Science, Corteva Agriscience, FMC and Syngenta, and who combined make more than one-third of their sales income from highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) — directly undermines the FAO’s priority of a progressive ban on HHPs, as well as its role as a global leader supporting innovative approaches to agricultural production and advancing food security, sustainability, and resilience.