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Uploaded: 2024-12-06T10:10:16.585Z
Duration: 3 min 15 s
Channel: Swedwatch

Swedwatch reposted this

Mathieu Vervynckt

Head of Unit Value Chains @ Swedwatch

1mo Edited

⚗️ While farmers in countries like Kenya continue to be exposed to hazardous pesticides without proper training or protective equipment, the #CSDDD remains ambiguous about the extent to which companies should identify risks associated with the use of their products. 🟢 But not the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises! So here's what EU pesticide producers could do (based on the OECD's 6 steps of due diligence) 👇 1️⃣ Identify the risk of the pesticide product being used in a way that could negatively impact human health and the environment. Meaningful stakeholder engagement is critical to provide information on potential risks for end-users. 2️⃣ Conduct stringent counterparty screening ahead of sales to customers in countries where the risk for improper use of pesticides is greater. 3️⃣ Provide protective equipment or other measures that ensure appropriate equipment is available for the working environment, and stop selling pesticides that require protective equipment to small-scale farmers in hot and humid climates. 4️⃣ Facilitate and enable the remediation of the impacts on the farmers and their families poisoned by the pesticides. 👀 By taking these steps, pesticide companies can demonstrate a genuine commitment to human health and environmental protection, moving beyond compliance to true corporate accountability. Yet the million dollar question remains: will EU member states force them to do so? #TransposeBeyondMinimumRequirements 📽️ Check out this video by Swedwatch Naturskyddsföreningen (SSNC) and Kenya Organic Agriculture Network, which illustrates what happens when companies fail to carry out downstream due diligence ⬇️

Transcript

Pesticides are inherently toxic and responsible for an estimated 11,000 deaths globally every year. These concerns have led to a range of highly hazardous pesticides being banned in the EU due to their detrimental effect on both the environment and human health. However, many of them can still be sold to countries outside of the Union, countries like Kenya. There are some pesticides that are have been banned in Europe because of their negative impacts on human health and also on environment, but they are not. They find their way here. So there's some companies in Europe who produce them not for the European market but for markets such as Kenya. Even the water is that. The water is also dirty, yeah. Probleem mond toch, maar Wij hebben dat probleem, ja. One spot, 7 days, once per week. Hmm. The most affected people by pesticide dress, by pesticide use are usually small scale farmers in terms of their exposure, in terms of financial losses, health risks, and they usually pay the highest price. In Kenya, these pesticides are used to grow food for domestic consumption, but also for export. However, products exported to the European market are typically tested for pesticides, residue and in many cases stopped at the border for containing the very chemicals that European companies provided. Meaning that the farmer does not get paid. Musically. The current use of pesticides, if it goes on, it's going to put Kenya into a very high risk as our repeatable trading partner in the export business because more and more interceptions are being made in the recent years and it's time that action was taken to ensure that we minimize the use of banned pesticides. But also proper use of the ones that are allowed.

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