Environmental for Food Justice

Moderator’s Note: The use of systemic pesticides has expanded across the world including Europe where scientists are intensively studying the effects of these toxic substances on wildlife and ecosystems. According to a new report from a group of European scientists the impact of pesticides on wildlife is alarming with specific concern for the “rapid decline in inset and arthropod populations across Europe.” According to the web site for the European Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (TFSP), these toxic chemicals are different from more conventional agri-chemicals because “unlike other pesticides which remain on the surface of treated foliage, systemic pesticides are taken up by the plant and transported to all the tissues (leaves, flowers, roots and stems, as well as pollen and nectar).” This quality of pervasiveness, as well as their cumulative persistence in the environment, is having a disastrous impact on many species including beneficial insects like pollinators. The most common ...