Swiss voters will soon determine whether or not synthetic pesticides should be outright banned.
Are the assertions made by proponents and opponents of the ban accurate? And what is the true effect of pesticides on the population? Let’s take a look at the truth.
Swiss people will vote on a proposal to prohibit the use of pesticides in the country on June 13th. The initiative’s supporters want to make synthetic weedkillers, insecticides, and fungicides illegal in Switzerland’s agriculture sector, as well as for personal or industrial use. They also want to prohibit the importation of these agents.
The anti-pesticide committee, which is located in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, is made up of scientists, legal experts, and farmers who have no direct political relations. The plan, however, has gained some political support, most notably from the Green Party, which claims that the Alpine country has done very little to combat pesticide use.
“In an international comparison, Switzerland is at best in the middle of the pack when it comes to pesticide reduction,” the party argues on its website.
Is Switzerland truly an international outlier when it comes to pesticide use? Pesticide sales data will provide some insight into how well Switzerland is doing in terms of reducing pesticide use. The Green Party bases its argument on data gathered by the 37-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). According to those figures, Switzerland ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of pesticide sales per unit of property.
The estimates, however, only cover the years 2011-2015. Switzerland’s pesticide use was 4.9 kilogrammes per hectare in 2018, according to data collected by the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
This places it in the same boat as France and the United Kingdom (as well as Turkmenistan, Georgia, Argentina and the Dominican Republic). When it comes to pesticide use, it is neither among the top nor bottom countries.
However, in order to assess a country’s pesticide policy, it’s also important to consider whether usage has increased or decreased in recent years. According to Eurostat (the European Union’s statistical office), pesticide sales in Switzerland decreased between 2011 and 2019, but not as much as in other European countries over the same time.
To get a clearer understanding of what is going on, it is also worthwhile to pay more attention to trends in the selling of various forms of pesticides. Herbicide prices have fallen for six years in a row, with glyphosate sales down by 63 percent in ten years. Sulfur (fungicide), paraffin oil (insecticide), glyphosate (herbicide), Folpet (fungicide in viticulture), and Mancozeb were the top five best-selling pesticides in 2019. (fungicide). Sulfur and paraffin oil, for example, are allowed in organic farming and are also used in traditional agriculture.
In a global sense, Switzerland might be “average with space for improvement,” but what does that mean for its people? Pesticides have a broad range of toxicity profiles, and the World Health Organization (WHO) recently graded them based on their ability to affect humans. We found 170 matches when we compared the WHO hazard classification to a list of 360 active substances licensed in Switzerland. The study revealed the existence of a pesticide classified as “highly dangerous” by the WHO: the active ingredient bromadiolone, marketed in Switzerland as Arvicolon 200 CT.
It’s used in baits to kill a rodent known as a water vole, which is a pest in the horticulture and viticulture industries. Abamectin, methomyl, tefluthrin, and zeta-cypermethrin were categorized as “extremely hazardous,” while around a hundred others were classified as “moderately hazardous” or “slightly hazardous.”
Switzerland has succeeded in reducing the use of certain pesticides in domestic agriculture, but it has not tackled imports, which is significant because the majority of Swiss residents’ plant-based calories (60 percent) come from outside the country.
“More than 10% of imported foods checked by the authorities in 2017 showed residues of pesticides banned in Switzerland because of their adverse effects on health or the environment,” according to an investigationExternal link by the advocacy group Public Eye. According to data from the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office, 52 prohibited pesticides were discovered during that year’s research. As a result, if imports are not taken into account, the threat to public health is likely to be underestimated.
Switzerland ranks in the center of the pack in terms of pesticide purchases and usage restrictions, according to international comparisons.
However, it has made more progress than it is given credit for in reducing certain pesticides (such as herbicides). Pesticides licensed for use in the country are usually not the most harmful, and more than 40% of plant safety products on the market can be used in organic farming.
