What should governments be doing about pesticides?
As a first step, all governments should bring their pesticide regulations up to the minimum standards of FAO’s International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides, unanimously adopted by the 158 member nations of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Exporting counties should implement the principle of ‘prior informed consent’, which means not allowing a banned, restricted or untested pesticide to be exported without the importing country government’s consent. Governments should also enact ‘right to know’ laws guaranteeing the right people and communities exposed to pesticides to have full information about those chemicals. And they can ensure access to other vital information by establishing national pesticide poisoning centres and mandatory reporting of poisonings, and by carrying out public education campaigns about pesticide hazards. Perhaps most important of all, governments can help wean their citizens from pesticide dependency by making a national c
