As close as we can to the Earth Day, we need to be reminded of a worldwide problem: Toxic Pesticides.

 

Nowadays, the agriculture is  crucial in the life of more than 7 billion individuals. However, all of this may be debilitated. Agriculture in the 21st century confronts various challenges: it needs to produce more food and fiber to feed a growing population with a smaller country work constrain, more feedstock for a possibly gigantic bio energy market, adopt more efficient and sustainable production methods and adapt to climate change. World populace is relied upon to become by over a third, or 2.3 billion individuals, somewhere around 2009 and 2050. Put resources into new environmental innovations that assistance in expanding generation can guarantee the upkeep of life on Earth. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2007)(FAO, Rome, Italy, 2006)

Trying to increase production, at the beginning of the 21st century, pesticides were created, aiming to end the plagues that had ravaged plantations, like fungi and weeds. This technology, initially very accepted, today is highly criticized (FAO, Rome, Italy, 2014). One of the major problems facing the world agriculture concerns the constant and often indiscriminate use of pesticides, causing, in many cases, resistance of insects to insecticides, the reduction or elimination of the population of natural enemies of pests, environmental contamination, in addition to increased production cost. Pesticides are not only toxic to pests, but also for men, domestic and wild animals and to nature as a whole. (FAO, Rome, Italy, 2006)

Last year, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics published an article about the most commonly used pesticides in Brazil. The majority of pesticides used here are extremely toxic and are prohibited in other countries, which directly interferes in the export of agroproducts. Another study by the National System of Alimentary and Nutrition Security revealed that we, Brazilians, are ingesting 5.2 liters of toxic pesticides each year while ingesting agro products. The problem is even worse if you take in consideration that most of the farmers in Brazil have never attended school, and therefore, have no knowledge about what they are using on their crop and end up oversing it and also poisoning themselves.

The Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency determined the maximum quantity of pesticides that a product can have. Every year they collect samples to quantify the amount of pesticides and compare it to the standard. They release annual reports with their results, and it can be used to, for example, press the Congress to approve more rigid laws in monitoring agricultural production, and Map the most critical cultures about the irregular use of pesticides. In the 2014 report, of the total number of Zucchini samples 48% had more pesticides than the maximum determined by law.