Agrochemicals – Page 2

We launched the website “Emergencia Agroquímica”

We launched a participatory website where environmental conflicts related to the use of agrochemicals in the province of Córdoba are made known, as well as providing legal tools and the possibility of making visible the existence of other conflicts of said nature.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

The website is structured based on three objectives. The first of them aimed at the visibility of socio-environmental conflicts related to the use of agrochemicals in the province of Córdoba. Second, it seeks to provide information and legal resources as necessary tools for the empowerment of communities and for the protection of their rights to health and a healthy environment. Third, it seeks to reinforce the visibility of conflicts through a collaborative platform in which new conflicts can be incorporated, thus expanding the content.

For such purposes, a conflict mapping was prepared based on an analysis of information compiled since 2008, mainly from newspaper articles and online publications related to 18 communities affected by the application of agrochemicals.

The examination of the data revealed relevant characteristics regarding the problem. In this way, it was observed that the vast majority of these conflicts arise from illegal or irregular fumigation, residues of agrochemicals deposited in prohibited places (uncultivated land and fields), fumigating machines that transit through urban centers, damage to biodiversity by the application of chemical products and as a consequence of all the irregularities mentioned, the serious problems in the health of the members of the fumigated communities.

Likewise, the survey revealed similar concerns and demands on the part of the communities regarding the application of agrochemicals. Thus, as a common denominator, these require: ordinances that establish Environmental Reserved Areas with respect to urban areas; the completion of the provincial law that regulates the requirements and minimum distances of application, the carrying out of health studies, among other claims. Other populations, as is the case of the town of Dique Chico, tend to an alternative to “agroecological reconversion” guiding the production from a sustainable and healthy perspective.

The survey work carried out demonstrates the “agrochemical emergency” that exists in numerous localities in the province of Córdoba. The use of agrochemicals without adequate control by the authorities, the non-compliance with current regulations regarding application distances, which also become ineffective for the protection of populations, are factors that not only affect the environment but also constitute a serious public health problem.

In this sense, the statistics show alarming data regarding the existence of certain diseases. For example, from the year 2017 onward, more than half of the deaths in the town of Canals, had their origin in a carcinogenic disease; or the case of the Monte Maíz locality in which the cases of deaths due to cancer exceed three times the average, in addition to being observed in all the localities surveyed numerous cases of malformations, respiratory diseases, spontaneous abortions and other infrequent diseases such as lupus, rematoidea arthritis, among others. These data shed light on the urgent attention that the problem deserves on the part of those who have the responsibility of adapting the controls in the application and to formulate a law respectful of the environment and health, paying attention above all to the needs of those populations most affected.

Access to the site Emergencia Agroquímica

Authors

Ananda Lavayén

María Laura Carrizo

Contact

Juan Bautista López, juanbautistalopez@fundeps.org

10 June, 2019

Environment, News

Entre Ríos: going to school without agrochemicals

The Justice of Entre Ríos annulled a decree of the governor that authorized the fumigations to one hundred meters of the rural schools. Macri questioned the ruling.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

The province of Entre Ríos has been going through a serious socio-environmental crisis for some time as a result of the agro-industrial model adopted at the beginning of the century, which in the aftermath of a false development attacks the health and quality of life of various communities. The big affected of this false progress are the agricultural communities, who saw their living conditions modified, many expelled to the big cities, and others survive immersed in fields full of soybeans and agrochemicals. These, the direct victims of the system, breathe, drink, eat, walk, study, replete with chemicals. Among them, boys and girls are the most affected because their health is more vulnerable and because they are in full development. In Entre Ríos, as in other provinces of the country, as in ours, Córdoba, rural schools are fumigated.

Remember that as the transgenic crop increases, the use of agrochemicals is greater, as it implies the use of millions of liters of these products. According to the Rosario Stock Exchange, the harvest estimate for April this year is 56 million tons, 60 percent more than in the previous season when 35 million tons were harvested. In this context, the excessive use and poor handling of these substances is daily. In addition, in legislative matters there is a regulatory diversity difficult to reconcile with respect to the distances of environmental protection areas and an immensity of application criteria and recommendations made by sectors with economic interests. Thus, and in the face of absolute inaction on the part of the State, the health of thousands of children is in grave danger.

Rural schools: first sentence in favor of health

In this context and through the hard work and commitment adopted by civil society and social organizations, immersed in a struggle that took years, in 2018, the Ecological Forum of Paraná, a civil association dedicated to the care of the environment and health, and the Association of Teachers of Entre Ríos, promoted an action of amparo against the province of Entre Ríos, so that immediately the State is urged to take the necessary measures to protect children and adolescents, teachers , teachers and non-teaching staff who attend rural schools in the province, the negative impacts that agrobiotechnology generates on soil, air and surface and underground water, and as a consequence on health.

The justice was issued in this regard by means of a judgment dated October 1, 2018, which prohibits land fumigation with agrochemicals around educational establishments within a radius of 1000 meters, and aerial spraying within a radius of 3000 meters.

The judge enforces the precautionary principle, which states that “when there is a danger of serious or irreversible damage, the lack of absolute scientific certainty will not be used as a justification to postpone the adoption of cost-effective measures to avoid environmental degradation” . In addition, the Provincial Government is condemned to the implementation of plant barriers, to carry out in a sustained manner over time the studies that allow the delineation of objective guidelines regarding the rational use of chemicals and agrochemicals, with the accent precisely on the prevention of damage. This ruling was confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of the province.

The questioned decree and the second sentence

Last January, Governor Gustavo Bordet, trying to stop the situation and solve the problem of “legal vacuum”, obeying the demands of the agricultural sector, dictates the Decree No. 4407/18 by virtue of which the application is prohibited terrestrial product in a radius of 100 meters around rural schools and in an area of 500 meters for aerial applications.

In view of these circumstances, at the beginning of March, the case entitled “Foro Ecologista de Paraná and another C / Superior Government of the province of Entre Ríos” began, aimed at the declaration of nullity and revocation of the decree in question. The provincial justice dictated sentence on March 28, referring to the effects of the sentence issued in October, while the judge considers that having solved an environmental issue linked to the health of a specific human group, has erga omnes effects, the judge establishes that “until it is determined by the specific state areas that identical preventive effects will be obtained for the health of the students and personnel that attend them with different distances, it is forbidden both to the administrator (Government) and to this judge to evaluate if it is possible to more or less comply with the indicated prevention”. It requires the environmental report required in the first sentence, which must ensure that the practice questioned is innocuous at a certain distance from the schools. He then points out that “The violation of res judicata by a norm determines its nullity due to its unconstitutionality”. For this reason, it annuls articles 1 and 2 of Decree No. 4407/18 for violating the rights protected by res judicata.

Finally, the magistrate reflects that “in the end it happens that we are in the presence – as in so many industrial activities – of a restriction, which must be charged by certain individuals that is based on the interest of health – in this case of the students and staff of rural schools-, and in the care of the environment; but its origins must be sought in productive practices that at some time – or perhaps always – ceased to have full social consensus.”

This ruling was also appealed by the government of Entre Ríos to the Superior Court of Justice of the province, who must decide deciding whether or not the decree is in conflict.

Controversial statements by the President

Mauricio Macri in a visit to Gualeguaychú at the beginning of April, dedicated a moment of his conference to refer to the conflict. With his sayings he interfered in a conflict that is settled in the Judicial Power expressly violating the independence of powers-the essence of any republican system of government.

Macri defended the use of agrochemicals without control, saying that the failure puts at risk 20% of the agroindustrial capacity of the province, without taking into account the public health problem facing the province, and all productive areas of the country .. In line with the above, said that it is “an absurd law that is not based on any scientific rigor”, with respect to the judicial decision, the second in a few months, dictated by the justice of Entre Ríos. That the current government promotes this extractive production model was made clear with the Final Report of the Interministerial Working Group on Good Practices in Phytosanitary Applications, presented last year by the agribusiness and environment portfolios.

The sayings of Macri aroused all kinds of criticism and comments, mainly because it ignores the impact of health that the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals produces in people. Also, he is criticized that he, as the main representative of the State, has the duty to protect the health of the children and adolescents who attend these or other educational establishments.

Boys and girls from rural areas are threatened mainly in those places where they should be safe: homes, schools, communities. The protection of the Higher Interest of the Child is a principle and a commitment adopted through the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with a constitutional hierarchy. From this, it is the responsibility of the State to take measures tending to ensure the development of children in a friendly environment.

For Macri there is no “scientific rigor” that justifies limiting the fumigations, ignoring not only the precautionary principle but the various judgments that are carried out today. In the United States alone, Monsanto has already been convicted in two trials for being responsible for the cancer risks of the Roundup herbicide based on the controversial drug glyphosate.

In our country, there are already records. We have, for example, the trial of the Madres del Barrio Ituzaingó Anexo in Córdoba, in which the producer and the fumigator were criminally sentenced. In Entre Ríos, in 2018 it was also possible to condemn the producer, the president of the aviation company and the pilot to one year and six months of suspended prison for being responsible for contamination of the fumigation that caused damages to personnel and students of School No. 44, near Santa Anita.

However, public policies do not yet respond to this problem. The qualification of SENASA regarding the dangerousness of agrochemicals is insufficient. Glyphosate for example, herbicide that is thrown millions of liters in our fields, in Argentina is classified as CLASS III, blue band (little dangerous), while in 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) warned about the linkage of glyphosate herbicide (the most widely used in the world) and cancer, cataloging glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic”.

The State is unaware of the battle that is being waged throughout the world to protect the right of children and adolescents and of future generations to enjoy a healthy environment. Enabling the violation of the right of these children to live in an environment that allows their development goes against their responsibilities. The State can not be passive, much less condescending, while daily fumigations occur that irreversibly damage the present and future of that generation.

Author

Maria Laura Carrizo Morales

Contact

Maria Perez Alsina, mariaperezalsina@fundeps.org

29 April, 2019

Environment, Gender, News

The Inter-American Commission presents its annual report 2018

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented its Annual Report 2018 at the end of last month, in which it reports the work carried out throughout the year. This report constitutes the main instrument of accountability of the IACHR, as well as monitoring the human rights situation in the region and following up on its recommendations.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

Chapter IV consists of a descriptive panorama on the situation of human rights in the member countries, with a special emphasis on the rights and issues prioritized by the IACHR, as well as on transversal axes of Democratic Institutionality, Institutionality in Human Rights, Access to Justice and Citizen Security; and Right to the Environment.

Together with lawyers from the Argentine Northwest on Human Rights and Social Studies (ANDHES), we presented a shadow report on these axes in December of the last year in the subjects we work on.

In the report for Argentina, the Commission took the matters reported in the shadow report. In the general considerations, it paid particular attention to the concern shown regarding the bill on collective processes; the situation of the right to protest; mobilizations regarding the debate regarding access to women’s sexual and reproductive rights, as well as possible reforms that would restrict the scope of the sex education law. Reference is also made to the clashes between public authorities and indigenous communities; the economic and financial situation in general and its possible impact on human rights, and in particular. Special considerations were made about the situation of poverty that affects children; the appointment of a child advocate that is still pending; expulsions of migrants; and the conditions of detention that prevail in police stations.

In turn, regarding issues related to human rights institutions, the IACHR highlighted our concern about the lack of nomination of a titular person in the Office of the Ombudsman of the Nation, a position that remains vacant since 2009. He also collected our concern about the economic and financial situation of the country and its effects on institutions regarding the allocation of resources and the functioning of the various State entities responsible for the protection of human rights.

Regarding access to justice, the Commission took note of the concern we expressed regarding the Collective Processes Bill prepared by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of the Nation, which, if successful, could seriously limit the use and effectiveness of collective actions, by restricting the possibility of suing the State and companies in defense of collective rights.

Regarding the situation of women’s rights, the IACHR welcomed the approval of the protocol for the investigation and litigation of femicides in Argentina, celebrated the approval and entry into force of Law No. 27,452 “Brisa Law” that grants economic reparations to sons and daughters of victims of femicide in Argentina and welcomed the approval of the “Micaela Law”, which aims to train officials in gender violence.

However, the Commission stated that “it has continued to monitor the various obstacles that women, girls and adolescents continue to face in the exercise of their sexual and reproductive rights, as well as the mobilization and legislative debate to exercise them. “In addition, he pointed out that” given the resurgence of the debate on the reform of the Sexual Education Law (Law No. 6,150), proposals have also emerged to revise and reform it, some of which would have the purpose of limiting its scope and eliminating mentions dedicated to diversity of gender and sexual diversity, topics that are follow-up by the Commission in order to ensure that the reviews are carried out in line with the inter-American standards on the matter. ”

With respect to the right to the environment, the Commission stated that the State informed it about a National Plan of Action to Combat Desertification and that the Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation has developed several communication channels within the framework of the National Law No. 25,831 in order to guarantee the right of access to environmental information. He also indicated that “the National Strategy for Environmental Education is being developed, a public policy that guides the bases for the construction of intersectoral programs in the theme to promote the action of individuals, groups and society as a whole for environmental care in its entirety. He also indicated that a National Cabinet on Climate Change has been formed, which is currently working on the articulation of mitigation and adaptation measures on the implementation of the National Determined Contributions of the country. Finally, there is also the generation of indicators for the management of biosphere reserves and private initiatives for the conservation of biodiversity. ”

Nonetheless, the IACHR was alerted to the use of agrochemicals, which is one of the most worrisome issues for the country, particularly because of the harmful effects on the lungs and skin; as well as the increase of conditions such as depression, seizures, immune and endocrine disorders. Inclusive attention was drawn to the increase in the number of people with cancer in the Cordovan town of Monte Maíz in the fumigation season.

For its part, the Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) of the Commission presented its own report, highlighting the main data collected as concerns, regarding the situation of the DESCA considered in its generality in all the countries of the region. There, the Rapporteurship mentions again the situations reported in the shadow report related to the right to the environment and the right to health, particularly sexual and reproductive rights.

We celebrate the conclusions prepared by the IACHR and the Rapporteurship on DESCA and that have echoed the reports sent from civil society. We hope that the State has appropriated these recommendations and incorporates them in its design of public policies to improve the human rights situation in our country.

15 April, 2019

Democracy, Environment, Gender, Global Governance, Health, News

We present a report on the human rights situation in Argentina before the IACHR

On October 30, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a communiqué inviting civil society organizations and other interested social actors of the Organization of American States (OAS) to send information on the situation. of human rights in the region. This information will be used for the preparation of chapter IV A of the annual report of the IACHR corresponding to the year 2018 that will be presented to the General Assembly of the OAS.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

Each year, the Commission produces an annual report on the human rights situation in the region, reflecting the trends, challenges, advances and good practices that have occurred in the area of human rights in the OAS member states during the year.

For the Annual Report of 2018, the Commission will emphasize the following axes: Democratic Institutionalization, Institutionality in Human Rights, Access to Justice, Citizen Security and Right to the Environment.

Together with lawyers and lawyers from the Argentine Northwest on Human Rights and Social Studies (ANDHES) we present a report on these axes in the areas we work on:

Institutionality in human rights

1. Hierarchical reduction of National Ministries of Environment, Culture, Health, Labor and Modernization and Communication
2. National Budget 2019
3. Comprehensive Sexual Education Law in danger

Access to justice

1. Preoccupation with the draft bill on collective processes
2. Access to the right to abortion in Argentina – Delay of justice in the case of Portal de Belén (by non-punishable abortion protocol in the province of Córdoba)
3. Access to justice for the elderly

Citizen security

1. Institutional Violence in Tucumán
2. Absence of mechanisms to prevent torture in Tucumán

Right to the Environment

1. Affectations to the right to health caused by the use of agrochemicals
2. Concern over project to amend the seed law
3. Failure to comply with the consultation and free, prior and informed consent of provincial law No. 5,915 to the detriment of the environment and the right to life and territory of indigenous communities in Jujuy.
4. Chinchillas Mining Project and the Pozuelos Lagoon in Jujuy
5. The indigenous community of Solco Yampa and the indiscriminate felling of trees in the province of Tucumán
6. Murder of Javier Chocobar in Tucumán

The cases presented in this report give an account of a general situation of regression of the fulfillment of human rights by the Argentine State. The exposed situations of vulnerability are particularly worrisome because they are part of a regional socio-political crisis context. In order to avoid the impact of cuts, the noncompliance with international standards and the promotion of public policies that do not attack the roots of structural inequality impact fully on the populations that are already in a situation of vulnerability, we ask the IACHR to publicly express concern about the state of compliance with human rights in the country.

More information

Complete report on the situation of human rights in Argentina

Contact

Mayca Balaguer, maycabalaguer@fundeps.org

4 December, 2018

Environment, News

Agrochemicals continue to affect the communities of Córdoba

During the month of October, we worked with the communities of Colonia Tirolesa and Falda del Carmen, two towns in Cordoba that for years suffer the consequences of the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals near populated areas. We accompany and support your claim trying to empower affected communities in the protection of health rights and a healthy environment.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

We participated in the “Agrochemicals, Health and Environment” Conference in Colonia Tirolesa

At the beginning of October, the “Agrochemicals, Health and Environment” conference was held in Colonia Tirolesa, a town located 27 km from the city of Córdoba, dedicated to agricultural activities, in particular to the production of potatoes, soybeans and corn.

The meeting was a good opportunity to continue learning from the communities that live near fields that are frequently sprayed with agrochemicals. During this meeting, members of the community had the opportunity to express their concerns and feelings about this problem, including the diseases that affect them.

In addition, members of the “Epidemiology Group of the Digna Science” of Córdoba and Buenos Aires, showed the results of the survey carried out through Socioenvironmental Health Surveys, carried out in May 2017 in the neighborhood of the Colonia Tirolesa station, in around 76 homes. The aim of the surveys is to contribute to the visibility of the health problems presented by populations exposed to socio-environmental risks and damages, thereby strengthening the fight against the hegemonic model of agricultural production.

One of the most striking results was that, in the last 20 years, the biggest causes of death in the neighborhood are malignant tumors (30%) and respiratory causes (22%), with cardiovascular diseases being the third (19 %), being that at the national level the latter is the main cause of death.

We participate in the meeting through the development of community capacities regarding their right to health and a healthy environment. María, Coordinator of the Environment area, was in charge of teaching these rights and the different ways in which members of the community are able to claim them.

An agronomist was also present at this multidisciplinary event. There, he explained to the community that there are alternative forms of production, which do not imply any damage to health or the environment. His talk focused on agroecological practices and how to apply those practices in the field.

It was a very mobilizing event, because although residents of Colonia Tirolesa knew that the excessive and uncontrolled use of agrochemicals could affect their health and environment, they had not taken real dimension of the problem, until they were shown the results of the health surveys. It was a good opportunity for them to take a real awareness of the dangers of being permanently exposed to these agricultural chemicals.

Visit to Falda del Carmen

In October, we also met with neighbors of Falda de Carmen, a small city near Córdoba Capital, which for some years has been demanding a municipal ordinance that creates an Environmental Conservation Zone to prohibit the use of agrochemicals in the fields to populated areas.

During the visit, they told us about their beginnings in this fight against rural entrepreneurs and agrochemicals, how they were organized in the Neighborhood Environmental Commission and the different actions taken to raise awareness and raise awareness in the commune about this problem that affects them.

From FUNDEPS we committed to help the community of Falda del Carmen in the development of advocacy strategies and to support their claims in order to strengthen their human rights to health and a healthy environment.

Contact

María Pérez Alsina, mariaperezalsina@fundeps.org

28 November, 2018

Environment, News

Complaint for illegal environmental activities in Alta Gracia

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

Last Thursday, October 19, we made a presentation to the Environmental Police Department denouncing alleged illegal activities developed in the Potrerillo de Larreta Country Club located in the city of Alta Gracia. Apparently, during the last weeks of September and the first weeks of October, large-scale geomorphological injury actions were carried out in the country inn sector in the “Los Paredones” stream; consisting of dredging, deepening and expansion of the reservoir in order to increase the exploitation of the water of the stream by the Country.

They signify a clear violation of the provincial environmental policy law, since in order to carry out this type of works it is necessary to previously complete the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, foreseen in Annex I, subsection 31 of Law 10.208 , which includes the holding of public hearings prior to the granting of the corresponding environmental license, a procedure that has not been completed in this case.

It is worth remembering that since 2012 the Potrerillo de Larreta Country Club has been involved in a judicial process against the province of Córdoba, for the enclosure of almost 4 km of the same stream restricting free transit to third parties and the use of it by the entire community, mainly alleging security reasons. In this instance, together with the collective “Todos por Nuestros Arroyos” we present an Amicus Curiae invoking the character of public good of the stream and the illegitimacy of the fences, finding the next cause to issue a sentence.

Without prejudice to this, the illicit actions continue and are part of a long-standing problem in Alta Gracia that involves particular interests to the detriment of the fundamental rights of all inhabitants. The enclosure of rivers, streams and lakes of provincial dominion by the owners of the estates adjacent to them, constitutes a clear illegitimate act that violates, among others, the right to free transit, the use, enjoyment and use of public domain waters and the constitutionally recognized human right of access to water.

From FUNDEPS we made this presentation hoping to contribute to an adequate protection of the environment as a collective good and to guarantee the respect of rights of collective incidence over individual rights.

More information

Presentation to protect the environment against individual interests in Alta Gracia | FUNDEPS

Author

Noelia Salvia

Contact

María Pérez Alsina – mariaperezalsina@fundeps.org

28 October, 2017

Environment, News

Supreme Court confirms Ituzaingó ruling: agrochemicals SI make us sick

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

One of the major socio-environmental conflicts facing the province of Cordoba due to the expansion of the agricultural frontier is the application and irregular use of agrochemicals in fields close to homes, neighborhoods, schools or other human settlements. constitutes a great risk to the health of the exposed communities.

A case in point of affecting the human right to a healthy environment and health is that of neighbors and neighbors of Barrio Ituzaingó Anexo, who have been demanding respect for their rights for more than ten years. This neighborhood is located southeast of the City of Cordoba, bordering the north with an industrial zone and bordering with rural areas to the north, east and south. There are approximately 5000 people, who live in 1200 houses in 30 blocks.

In March 2002, it was the first time that a group of mothers worried about the health situation in the neighborhood began to complain to the authorities for the analysis of diseases and possible contaminants. This process of struggle that began since then was carried out by the group “Madres de Barrio Ituzaingó.

Although the process was long, as a result of the social struggle, neighbors and neighbors gained access to potable water through running water, building the Primary Health Care Unit, creating the Provincial Registry of Tumors and thus also achieved normative advances in environmental matters. In this last aspect, municipal ordinances were issued that established the “sanitary and environmental emergency” and prohibited aerial and terrestrial fumigations to less than 2,500 meters of any dwelling or group of dwellings), that finally resulted in the prohibition of fumigations throughout the ejido of the city (ordinances n ° 10505/2002, 10589/2003, 10590/2003).

The judicial process began in 2008 when neighbors made complaints denouncing the existence of diseases, abortions and malformations attributed to the fumigations that were carried out in the fields adjacent to their homes. After a lengthy judicial process, in August 2012 the First Criminal Chamber issued an unprecedented ruling on environmental pollution due to the use of pesticides in urban areas, condemning a producer and an agroaplicor pilot. On September 12, the Supreme Court of Justice was issued regarding the complaint filed by the defendants, rejecting the request and confirming the decision of the Crime Chamber.

We welcome the resolution issued by the Argentine Supreme Court and set a precedent for similar cases in which communities are violated their fundamental rights by the irregular application of agrochemicals. In this context, we also consider it necessary to comply with local regulations that have created zones of environmental protection and restrictions on the use of agrochemicals (such as Alta Gracia in which we work). Along these lines, we support the establishment of a national law on minimum environmental budgets, referring to the regulation of distances for the application of agrochemicals guided by the precautionary principle, which will establish a reference framework that will safeguard the fundamental rights to the environment and health.

More information

– Public Health Driven by Agribusiness | El Entramado

Contact

Male Martinez Espeche, malemartinez@fundeps.org

17 September, 2017

Environment, News

Help us Protect Communities Affected by Agrochemical Use

FUNDEPS has started a crowdsourcing campaign to assist local communities in Cordoba, Argentina, affected by the intensive use of Agrochemicals (pesticides and fertilizers). From June 12th to 30th, you can help us by donating through Global Giving.

ccording to the UN Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (2017), pesticides are responsible for an estimated 200,000 acute poisoning deaths each year. Almost all of these deaths (estimated at 99%) occur in developing countries where legal regulations concerning health, safety and the environment are weaker or less strongly enforced. Agro-chemical spraying of pesticide and fertilizers, implemented by air or ground, have become severe health and environmental hazards for the populations exposed. This is particularly the case when the spraying occurs in the surroundings of neighbourhoods, schools or homes, underscoring the need for environmental protection.

Since 2013, FUNDEPS has been working with communities in Córdoba affected by an intensive exposure to agro-chemical use, in the neighbouring areas. This is a complex problem in all of Argentina, but particularly in Cordoba, a province that relies in agricultural production.

The different aspects of this problem can be seen in:

* The lack of public information on the health risks and effects of the irregular use of agrochemicals, which violates the human right to health and to a safe environment.

* The increased health problems connected to the agro-chemical exposure, such as asthma, allergies, cancer, infertility, abortion and neurological problems, which predominantly affect children, pregnant women, the elderly and rural workers and their families.

* The downplaying of risks and facts, which leads to the rejection of the official complaints of members of the communities by governmental bodies.

Having worked in this area for many years, we have seen a clear need to assist the communities affected by these issues, helping them to guarantee their right to health and to a safe environment. With these ideas in mind, FUNDEPS has launched its first crowdsourcing campaign in the Global Giving platform.

Global Giving is the first and largest global crowdfunding community that connects nonprofits, donors, and companies in nearly every country around the world. Global Giving works to ensure that nonprofits access the tools, training, and support they need to be more effective and make our world a better place. Since 2002, almost 600,000 donors (corregir en español) have raised over $250 million USD in 165 countries.

Our Project ‘Protecting communities exposed to agrochemicals’ aims to strengthen the rights to health and to a safe environment of the local communities affected by the intensive use of agrochemicals. The funds raised will help us increase our work with these communities, and particularly to develop the following activities:

* To organize workshops and trainings to empower the affected communities to understand the risks associated with these activities and the regulations that protect their rights to health and a safe environment;

* To push for the enforcement of the current regulations, and to work for better legal frameworks.

* To conduct research to gather data and information regarding the effects and reach of this problem in the region.

Why Donate?

Your donation will contribute to improve the environment and health of the local communities in Cordoba, through an increased advocacy work, together with the empowered communities.

Your contribution will help us continue to develop our work with the communities, which we have been conducting for many years and has been verified by Global Giving. You will be able to send and receive messages with updates on the implementation.If you are not satisfied with your donation to our project, you will be able to re-direct it to another project of your choice.

What will happen with your donation?

* $10 (USD) can provide families with information on their health and environmental rights.

* $25 (USD) can support one member of the FUNDEPS team to travel to the rural communities to meet with people negatively affected from exposures.

* $50 (USD) can support one workshop to empower the community to fight for their right to a healthy and safe environment.

* $100 (USD) can support academic research of the impacts on health of exposure to agrochemicals in Falda del Carmen.

* $200 (USD) can support research and development of protective local legislation.

* $250 (USD) can provide one family with technical assistance when filing a complaint to the government.

* $300 (USD) can support a media campaign to share the story of those impacted and demand stricter laws.

How to donate?

1. Click here

2. On the right side of the page, select an amount and follow the steps. You can donate using your credit card or PayPal.