The United Nations says it’s time to overturn the myth that pesticides can feed the world and come up with better, safer ways of producing our food.
For much of the past century, chemical companies and large-scale farmers have been telling consumers that pesticides are essential for keeping crop yields high, which, in turn, is necessary for feeding the world’s growing population. They’re partly right. These chemicals have been helpful in keeping up with unprecedented jumps in food demands, but their use has come at a steep cost that no longer appears to outweigh the benefits.
The United Nations wants this to change. In a newly released report, the UN takes a strong stance against the use of industrial agrochemicals, saying that they are not necessary for feeding the world. Continuing to use pesticides at the rate that the world currently does is, in fact, a betrayal of basic human rights because it can have “very detrimental consequences on the enjoyment of the right to food.”
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Photo credit: Zeynel Cebeci via Wikimedia Commons
