Public Eye hands over nearly 38,000 signatures to Syngenta
The campaign by Freundliche Grüsse has worked: Public Eye handed over a petition to Syngenta at its Basel headquarters in which 37,816 signatories call on the agrochemical company to take its most toxic pesticides off the market. These pesticides endanger the health of millions of people, especially in developing and emerging countries. In Brazil, but also in Switzerland, pesticide contamination of drinking water is currently a hotly debated topic.
On Thursday morning, an unusual art transport made its way through the streets of Basel to Syngenta, the world's largest pesticide producer. Wearing protective clothing, members of Public Eye handed over to the head of Switzerland, Roman Mazzotta, a package containing a petition signed by almost 38,000 people calling on Syngenta to immediately stop the production and sale of highly hazardous pesticides such as atrazine, glyphosate and paraquat. To put a face to this concern, portraits of Brazilian activists painted with pesticide-contaminated water were placed outside the company's offices. In doing so, they denounce the damage to health and the environment that these toxins cause in their country.
Brazil is the world's largest user of pesticides and therefore Syngenta's most important market. Research by Public Eye has shown that millions of people there are exposed to a pesticide cocktail in their drinking water, the long-term effects of which are far from foreseeable. The revelations, published together with Repórter Brazil, caused a wave of indignation in the country, also because numerous scientists are warning of an increase in cancer, birth defects and other diseases in this context. Parliamentary discussions and hearings were held in several of the agricultural regions particularly affected.
In Switzerland, too, this problem is high on the political agenda, fueled by the current analysis of residues of toxic substances in groundwater, some of which exceed legal limits. These include atrazine, one of Syngenta's main products, which is also found in 85 percent of the samples analyzed in Brazil. The detectability of this particularly hazardous herbicide, which is banned in Switzerland, highlights the urgency of immediately phasing out such substances to protect future generations.
According to estimates, Syngenta generated sales of around $3.9 billion with such substances in 2017 alone. Many of these pesticides are no longer approved in Switzerland and the EU, but continue to be marketed in developing and emerging countries. Since Syngenta is not voluntarily fulfilling its responsibility for people and the environment, the Swiss authorities must finally take measures to put a swift end to this business, Public Eye demands.
The petition was accompanied by an awareness campaign by Kind regards (Werbewoche.ch and Werbewoche Print reported). Together with the Brazilian watercolor painter Renato Palmuti, the "Pesticide Portraits" were created: Portraits of four affected people, painted with pesticide-contaminated water. They are representative of the many activists who are active in Brazil against the massive use of pesticides.
