A UK Declaration of Food and Healthy
Living was produced as the culmination of discussion a conference Human
Health and Toxic Chemicals organised by the Green Network.
The delegates heard about the expansion of the organic sector
from Bernward Geier of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture. He
said there are now 50,000 organic practitioners now farming in the EU.
Professor Sam Epstein from the University of Illinois Medical
Center told delegates of the increase in breast cancer in recent years and its
association with persistent environmental contaminants. Pesticides induce
cancers in rats and mice and/or give rise to oestrogenic effects, he concluded.
The conference produced a declaration which called upon all
governments and international agencies at the summit to adopt a number of
proposals. Those relating to pesticides include:
recognise the adverse effects from exposure to pesticides from food and water;
recognise that people have been injured by chemicals;
ban aerial spraying;
maximise consumer and community empowerment by means of education, freedom of information and community involvement in hazard-identification and risk assessment.;
introduce product-labelling to include pesticide residues contained in produce;
phase out the production and use of the persistent organochlorine, toxic organophosphate and ozone-depleting methyl bromide;
promote safe, sustainable and diverse agriculture and increase government funding of organic farming.
The declaration will be presented to the
FAO at the World Food Summit in November .
Green Network, 9 Clairmont Road, Lexden,
Colchester, Essex, CO6 3BE, UK, Tel. 01206 46902, Fax 01206 766005.
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 33 as part of the
Focus on Food supplement, September 1996,
page 24]