24/May/22

 

On 21 May several hundred protesters marched through the city of Basel in Switzerland en route to Syngenta’s global HQ. It’s an annual march and the protesters weren’t happy with the company for a number of reasons, but one of those mentioned prominently this year was “the cynical statements of Syngenta CEO Erik Fyrwald, who blames organic farming for the food crisis”. Fyrwald said that in view of the food crisis, brought on by the war in Ukraine, rich countries had to increase their crop production – but organic farming led to lower yields. “The indirect consequence is that people are starving in Africa, because we are eating more and more organic products,” he claimed. The president of the Swiss Small Farmers’ Association, Kilian Baumann, called Fyrwald’s arguments “grotesque”. But they’re also fundamentally dishonest and part of a desperate bid to maintain the industry’s profit-driven stranglehold over global food production. GMWatch

 

 

A new report, "Forbidden fruit: The dramatic rise in dangerous pesticides found on fruits and vegetables sold in Europe and evidence that governments are failing their legal obligations", shows that citizens have been exposed to a dramatic rise in the frequency and intensity of residues of the most toxic pesticides on fruits and vegetables grown in the EU. This contradicts official claims that toxic pesticide use is declining and exposes a complete failure by Member States to implement EU Regulation and protect consumers. The increased exposure also runs in the opposite direction to the pesticide reduction target of the Farm to Fork Strategy. PAN Europe