Dish of the day: poison

Cancer, genetic mutations, fetal malformations, unwanted abortions, and countless other diseases. This is the unpalatable menu of risks that the rural lobby and the Temer government want to push onto millions of Brazilians by attempting to approve an amendment to the Pesticides Law in a Special Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. Through Bill 6299/2002, they are presenting a veritable "poison package" that relaxes and expands the consumption of pesticides in the country. But good politics cannot be replaced by the greed of a few, and for the good of many, the bill must be rejected.

Development, as well as progress and employment, are necessary and desirable, but they must be environmentally sustainable, guaranteeing healthy food security and respecting the fundamental rights of the people.

This new text, written collaboratively – meaning representatives of the business conglomerates that produce pesticides and large producers – is absurd. First, they change the term "pesticides" to a camouflaged moniker: "phytosanitary products and environmental control." They are thus attempting to downplay the risks of the new policy. They want to sell the idea that these are not toxic, but rather protective measures.

The bill weakens Brazilian state regulation and oversight, removing powers from federal health and environmental agencies. In practice, this would legalize the use of pesticides in urban and rural areas, endangering people's lives and the balance of the ecosystem, going far beyond simple "pest control."

The advance of agribusiness to generate more profit at any cost will cost the lives of our population. Rural workers and cities near plantations will be impacted in the short term by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Furthermore, the contamination of rivers, lakes, and groundwater, as well as the air and wildlife, will cause harm to people's health.

Brazil is already a major consumer of pesticides. Consumption of this poisonous product in the country jumped from US$2 billion to over US$7 billion between 2001 and 2008. In 2014, it was... US$ 9,5 billions. This growth does not correspond to the expansion of arable land during the same period depicted.

The project also goes against the Federal Constitution, violating six articles, by subjecting the Right to Health, the Environment, and consumer protection to the Economic Order, notably to Agricultural Policy. In doing so, it violates, for example, Article 196, which enshrines health as a right of all and a duty of the State, to be ensured through social and economic policies aimed at reducing the risk of diseases and other health problems.

The pesticide package goes against the standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and, along with the labor reform, allows pregnant rural workers to work in daily contact with these pesticides. This violates life, dignity, and health. Fiocruz, INCA, IBAMA, CONTAG, the Labor Prosecutor's Office, the Federal Public Defender's Office, and more than two hundred organizations have released technical notes against this project.

Brazil is rapidly heading, under the mantle of this greedy and corrupt government, towards something unbelievable. What we are seeing is frightening. Shame has vanished. Scruples have vanished. Commitment to life, to health, to the people, to the environment, to the country, to anything that places us within good politics, within the strategy of a national project linked to the fundamental goods and rights of the Brazilian people, has vanished.

Maintain resistance and work towards changing the winds. The time is now!