Food & Drink
123 pesticides found in school fruit and veg
An extra 1p per child per day could end schoolchildren’s exposure to a ‘cocktail of pesticides’.
5 September 2017
A typical British roast dinner, followed by strawberries for dessert, is produced using a cocktail of more than 100 pesticides, new analysis by Greenpeace of official data has revealed.
The findings are published today (14 May) in Greenpeace UK’s new report, ‘Our Poisoned Land’, which warns that intensive pesticide and fertiliser use is not only posing serious risks to human health, it’s also pushing British wildlife and our natural environment to the brink.
Since 1966, Britain has lost over 19 million breeding birds, and more than half of UK butterfly species are now missing from areas they inhabited in the 1970s.
Greenpeace investigators examined FERA Pesticide Usage Survey data covering vegetables commonly eaten as part of a traditional Sunday roast. These include onions, leeks, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, peas, swede and turnips. Strawberries were included as a classic British dessert.
The analysis found 102 unique pesticides used across seven food categories. Onions and leeks are treated with 43 different pesticides; strawberries are treated with 42; carrots and parsnips are treated with 40; field potatoes are treated with 31; peas are treated with 29; swede and turnips are treated with 20 and stored potatoes are treated with five.
Seven of the 102 pesticides are already banned in the EU due to their links to cancer and endocrine disruption in humans. They also pose high risk to the health of bees, birds, mammals and aquatic ecosystems.
Of the nine most commonly used pesticides, eight are classified as Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs), meaning they are toxic to humans, wildlife or both. Three are classified as forever chemicals (PFAS).
Many of the pesticides are linked to harm to bees and other pollinators; severe damage to aquatic ecosystems; persistence in the environment and accumulation in the food chain and cancer and endocrine disruption in humans.
As well as revealing the sheer variety of pesticides used in UK farming, the analysis also highlights the number of times these British staples are dosed across the growing season. All crops received multiple pesticide applications with many sprayed dozens of times.
The repeated exposure is having consequences far beyond farmland, affecting insects, birds, mammals, rivers and soil health across the countryside.
‘A Sunday roast and strawberries might feel like one of the most natural and traditionally British meals imaginable but behind the scenes they’re produced using an astonishing cocktail of pesticides.
‘Our countryside is being drenched in pesticides, with devastating consequences for bees, birds, butterflies, rivers and the soil. Fields that once hummed with wildlife are falling silent while agrochemical giants rake in enormous profits and farmers are trapped in a costly cycle of chemical dependency. That doesn’t strengthen food security – it makes it more fragile.
‘Farmers are also under huge pressure from rising costs, climate shocks and volatile markets but some are already showing there’s another way. They’re reducing pesticide use and producing food alongside helping wildlife. If the government is serious about restoring nature and ensuring food security, it must properly back farmers and commit to halving pesticide use by 2030.’NINA SCHRANK
Senior campaigner at Greenpeace UK
Currently, the UK government’s Pesticides National Action Plan targets just a 10% reduction by 2030.
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