These articles are free but cost money to make, so please
make a donation and help us with the production costs.

Editorial

Developing country feature
Invasion of desert locusts in Senegal – a view from a heavily infested zone 3
Abou Thiam and Julienne Kuiseu, PAN Africa, Dakar, report on a visit to north Senegal in October 2004 where agriculture and natural vegetation have been severely affected by invading locusts. Locust swarms are a recurrent problem in the Sahel region.

Legal challenges
Landmark pesticide drift victory in California 5
Imagine preparing family dinner one evening when you smell a strange odour and begin to cough and choke. Your eyes start to burn as you see your 5-year old child vomiting in the backyard. You have no idea what is in the air or what you should do – neither do the emergency services. Andrea Wilson, of Californians for Pesticide Reform, reports on the issues that initiated the Pesticide Drift Exposure Response Act. 

Developing country hazards
People’s Caravan – a journey of discovery 6
The use of a People’s Caravan throughout Asia in 2000 and 2004 has been a powerful tool in educating and mobilising grassroots people to many agricultural issues including threats of pesticides to human life and the environment, the landlessness of peasants, food insecurity and the danger of genetic engineering. Jennifer Mourin of PAN AP describes the journeys and their success in raising awareness.

A new Code for coffee - the way forward 8
On 10 September the Common Code for the Coffee Community (CCCC) was launched in Hamburg, Germany, to encourage sustainability in the green coffee chain and to increase the quantities of coffee meeting basic sustainability criteria within social, environmental and economic standards. Dr Susanne Scholaen, a freelance consultant in the area of agriculture and environment, takes a closer look at the substance of the Code.

Bhopal – twenty years on 11
Dec 3, 2004 marks twenty years since hundreds of thousands of residents of Bhopal, India, awoke on a cold winter night to events of such horror and chaos that many believed the Apocalypse had come upon them. Bhopal campaigner Tim Edwards reports.

Alternatives
Growing coffee without endosulfan 10
Endosulfan is used to control the coffee berry borer and is considered difficult to substitute. Because of its effects on human health and the environment, a new Code has called for its substitution with safer pest management strategies. Anna-Elisabeth Jansen provides information on the alternatives. 

Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture
Force Fed – how our newly industrialised food system leads to environmental and human degradation 12
The Felicity Lawrence, Guardian journalist and author of ‘Not on the Label’, delivered the 2004 Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture at the Museum of London on 3 December. This event also marked the annual ‘Day of No Pesticide Use’ on the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in India. This day is held in memory of victims of Bhopal and other sufferers from pesticide exposure.

European hazards
EU finances aerial spraying of Spanish olives  18
As the European Commission debates whether to ban aerial application of pesticides in EU countries, public concerns that existing regulations do not adequately protect health or environment are confirmed by events in the major olive-growing zone in Spain, where insecticides are regularly sprayed by plane. Juan Carlos Pérez reports from Andalucia in southern Spain, which produces 30% of the EU’s olive acreage.

The Paris Appeal 19

International news 20

New global treaty on pesticides will help save lives
Clean-up operations in jeopardy
USA’s consumption of methyl bromide to increase by 16% 
Move to cut pesticide use in public housing

UK news 21

Warning on sheep dips
Lettuces exceed pesticide safety limits
Household product concern
Organic cotton company profiles No2

Book reviews and resources 23

Smallholder agriculture
The Bugman on Bugs
Industry hives off its testing function
New information available on pesticide use
PAN community video