pesticide - Slow Food International

European Parliament Votes to Protect Pollinators

25 October 2019

The importance of bees to global food security is well-established: the FAO has identified at least 87 crops which depend on bees for pollination, and the volume of agricultural production which is dependent on bees and other pollinators has grown by 300% over the last 50 years[1]. Just a few months ago, the Earthwatch Institute …

Miryam Gorban – Agroecology and our Food System

27 August 2018

Miryam Gorban is a determined, plain-speaking, cheerful Argentinian woman. She has seen 87 winters and they have given her memory, courage, analytical precision and the capacity to lead the fight for food sovereignty with acumen. Her eyes sparkle with the genius of someone who has dedicated her whole life to high ideals and lucid thinking. …

Slow Food joins Pesticide Action Week

20 March 2018

Call for a Pesticide-Free Spring: This year, Slow Food joins the Pesticide Action Week! The 13th edition of the Pesticide Action Week is starting. Along with other organizations, Slow Food is participating in the initiative, organized by the French anti-pesticide advocates, Générations Futures (future generations): this year, the focus is on Food Issues, a theme …

The Situation is Critical: Reflections on the Agrifood Atlas

21 November 2017 Carolina Modena

Today, the agrifood system lies in the hand of few gigantic corporations. Multinational firms have established themselves along the length food chain, controlling huge market share across every segment, from seeds, chemical inputs, animal and crop genetics to manufacture, distribution and retail. They face very few obstacles in their quest to dominate the market. In …

Stop Glyphosate: say no to the herbicide for our health’s sake!

30 May 2017 Maurizio Bongioanni

An independent study finds consistent traces of glyphosate in a sample of pregnant women in Rome.

Glyphosate: What Are The Alternatives?

10 April 2017 Michela Marchi

‘For Slow Food, the only alternative to the immoderate use of synthetic chemicals is clearly a drastic change in the mentality of consumers and producers alike, hence in the dominant agricultural model. It’s not a matter of replacing a harmful chemical molecule with another less harmful one and continuing with a sort of agriculture by substitution. It’s a matter of changing the type of agriculture we practice.’

Endocrine Disruptors: What are they and why should you be worried about them?

30 March 2017 Paola Nano

There is no question that chemical pesticides are poisons: Their specific function is to destroy insects, mites, bacteria, viruses and fungi, but their targets are also weeds, in other words any unwanted plants growing in a field alongside whatever the farmer has planted. The question is, when used on plants destined for human consumption, do they end up in our bodies? To what extent? And how do they interact with the human organism?

Herbicides are contaminating our food. Where are you eating them?

29 March 2017 Silvia Ceriani

The world’s best-selling herbicide, glyphosate (commonly known by the household brand name Roundup, owned by Monsanto) is used on food crops during their growth, and then to dry them. It is particularly widely used on maize and soya crops which are genetically-modifed to tolerate Roundup. And that’s not all. Glyphosate is commonly used in parks, gardens, cemeteries and along the sides of roads and railways.

Pesticide Action Week: Agroecology Protects Biodiversity

20 March 2017

Along with other organizations, Slow Food is participating in the international Pesticide Action Week, organized by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN): Starting from today, local events, film screenings, conferences, seminars and markets will seek to inform consumers about the risks of pesticides to the environment and our health and to encourage the use of alternative methods.

Pesticides: debunking the myths

14 March 2017 Annalisa Audino

The idea that pesticides are essential to feed a rapidly-growing world population is a myth, according to UN experts: a new report presented by the Human Rights Council has heavily criticized the multinationals that produce pesticides, accusing them of “systematic denial of the magnitude of the damage”, of “aggressive, unethical marketing tactics”, and influencing governments to obstruct reforms and paralyze global pesticide restrictions.