Pesticidi

Italy has given a favorable opinion to the European Commission's proposal to extend the use of the herbicide glyphosate for another 10 years.However, overall, a majority was not reached necessary for the green light.The contrary position of Austria, Croatia and Luxembourg weighed heavily, as did the abstention of Germany, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Malta.The extension of the authorization of the debated pesticide it has therefore been averted for now.For now.EU states will in fact be invited to vote on the appeal again in November.In this circumstance, the EU executive may modify the proposal, but if the qualified majority is not reached, it will be up to the European Commission to decide autonomously. The request for extension was made by a group of European chemical multinationals with strong commercial interests against the most used herbicide in the world, such as Bayer, Syngenta and Nufarm.Request which was then accepted and formalized by the EU Commission on t...

An investigation has exposed a complex system of monitoring and attacking critics of the agrochemical and biotechnology sector, run by companies with deep ties to the pesticide and GMO businesses.These companies would have created a sort of "private social network", an exclusive platform on which to collect and share information on public figures, academics and activists who oppose or criticize their work.The targets also include representatives of the United Nations.The service would be operated by v-Fluence, a company specializing in intelligence gathering and crisis communications management.The company, founded by Jay Byrne, former Monsanto executive, a leading figure in the agrochemical sector, provides tools to monitor and respond to criticism of the industry.Investigations also reveal that part of the financing for these operations may come from United States government. The documents that reveal the fact were released by LighthouseReports, a major collaborative journa...

Chemical giant Bayer has been ordered to pay $78 million to a Pennsylvania man who said he developed cancer due to prolonged use of Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide made by the company.The sentence was handed down yesterday by a Philadelphia jury.This is only the latest verdict resulting from a long series of lawsuits against the German multinational, which in 2018 acquired Monsanto, the company that originally put the herbicide on the market.The World Health Organization classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic" in 2015, but despite this, at the end of 2023 the European Union the authorization for the use of the substance was renewed, albeit with new restrictions. The 51-year-old who won the lawsuit against Bayer, William Melissen, used Roundup consistently from 1992 until 2020, when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.The man then took Bayer to court in 2021, claiming cancer the consequence of his exposure to the chemicals present in the herbicide.Tom K...

Over 260 thousand citizens of the European Union have signed a petition addressed to the European Commission, expressly asking the EU executive to give political priority to reducing the use of pesticides.The petition, the result of a growing movement in favor of environmental sustainability, was supported by numerous environmental organizations and associations active in the sector of environmental protection and agriculture, but also by many public health experts and biologists.There are three fundamental objectives at the center of the instance:reintroducing pesticide reduction into EU policy, reinstating ambitious targets for sustainable food production systems and protecting public health and the environment.The fight against the massive use of pesticides is therefore reinvigorated, an increasingly crucial aspect for the protection of the ecosystem and public health, put at risk by an intensive agricultural model considered, on a large scale, no longer sustainable in the long term...