Since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023, Brazil’s agribusiness caucus has leveraged a conservative majority in Congress to push legislation that undermines environmental regulations. This move starkly contrasts Lula’s green promises.
One significant legislation, the “Poison Bill,” took effect in late 2023. The legislation shifts the responsibility for pesticide regulation exclusively to Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply, reducing the role of health and environmental agencies. This new law relaxes the criteria for agrochemical approval. It shortens registration deadlines despite long-standing concerns about their environmental and health impacts, including several substances banned in the European Union (EU).
Proponents like Pedro Lupion, deputy coordinator of the agriculture caucus, argue that the bill reduces bureaucracy and modernizes pesticide policy. However, experts and environmentalists view it as catastrophic. Over the past decade, Brazil has witnessed a 78% increase in pesticide consumption, particularly in the advancing agricultural frontier of the Amazonian regions. Experts warn that the Poison Bill poses catastrophic risks, threatening Indigenous peoples, riverine communities, and small farmers while also jeopardizing the biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest.
Researchers highlight the severe consequences of this legislation. Ricardo Theophilo Folhes from the Federal University of Pará warns that pesticides are particularly harmful at the edge of the Amazon Rainforest, leading to long-lasting soil and water contamination. Larissa Mies Bombardi, a lecturer at the University of São Paulo, underscores the dramatic increase in pesticide use in the Amazon, including substances banned in Europe. Notably, the use of the fungicide mancozeb increased by 5,600% and atrazine by 575%, both linked to serious health issues.
Despite Lula’s attempts to balance production needs with health and environmental protection, his allies in the Senate failed to prevent the deregulation. In May 2024, Congress overturned some of Lula’s vetoes, giving the Ministry of Agriculture sole authority over pesticide regulation.
The lack of research funding and the influence of agribusiness hinder comprehensive studies on the effects of pesticides in the Amazon. Reports of intimidation against researchers, such as the harassment faced by Mônica Lopes Ferreira, who showed that even low doses of pesticides are harmful, further complicate efforts to address the issue.
The increased use of pesticides also correlates with higher deforestation rates and biodiversity loss. Agricultural practices in the Amazon, including aerial spraying of pesticides to accelerate deforestation, severely impact local communities and ecosystems. Between 2010 and 2019, 56,870 people were poisoned by pesticides, averaging 5,687 cases per year or 15 people daily. These poisoning events result from continuous pesticide use, both occupationally and environmentally, posing a significant public health problem. The major consequences include damage to the central nervous system, cancer, health effects on rural workers, intoxications, malformations, and endocrine changes. Experts believe the true number could be nearly three million.
European countries’ double standards exacerbate the situation, as they export banned pesticides to Brazil, enriching European chemical companies at the expense of human health and biodiversity. Bombardi argues that the new law fails to protect future generations and solidifies the interests of agribusiness and the agrochemical industry, offering no benefits to society or the environment. Hess concludes that Brazil has become the world’s largest chemical dump, using substances banned elsewhere while paying a high price for this “poison.”
Between 2018 and 2019, the EU exported 7,000 tonnes of deadly pesticides to Mercosur countries, mainly Brazil. These substances later returned to the EU through food imports. In 2020, Brazil used over 60,000 tonnes of highly hazardous pesticides banned in the EU. Amazonian regions, where the agricultural frontier is advancing, have seen a significant increase in pesticide consumption over the past decade. European countries plan to export more than 81,000 tonnes of pesticides containing chemicals prohibited within their borders.
Three Europe-based multibillion-dollar companies—BASF, Bayer, and Syngenta—control 54% of the world pesticide market.
