On 7 March, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, presented to the UN Human Rights Council a report on the risks to food for the world that arise from the use of pesticides. (Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food).

The new  UN report confirms very clearly that pesticides are a part of the problem and  not of the solution, declare the German Green politicians Harald Ebner, spokesman for genetic engineering and bio-economic policy and  Uwe Kekeritz, spokesman for development policy. “The global chemical industry cultivates the myth that pesticides are necessary if we are going to be able to feed a growing world population. It is good that the UN special rapporteur, Hilal Elver, is forcefully contradicting this legend. The opposite is true: we must stop the increasing application of poison to more and more land all over the world and the destruction long-term of the very basis of human life.”

Demand for a specific pesticide reduction plan

The UN report emphatically recommends ecological forms of agriculture as the solution to feeding the world. These forms must be promoted much more vigorously all over the world, whether in development cooperation or other fields of politics, maintain the politicians. The federal government, in the person of Minister of Agriculture Schmidt and Minister for Development Gerd Müller, must at long last listen to the clear statement by the UN special rapporteur. Ebner und Kekeritz are demanding a pesticide reduction plan with mandatory targets and concrete requirements.