Future Perfect

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Advancing environmental sustainability

and sustainable ecological agriculture

through community empowerment

Sarojeni V. Rengam, Executive Director, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific

esticides continue to negatively impact the health and lives

of millions of agricultural workers, their communities and

consumers worldwide as well as causing great damage

to biodiversity and the environment. Farmers and agricultural

workers are heavily exposed to pesticides and suffer a range

of acute and chronic health effects while remaining tragically

ignorant of their source. Pesticide impacts compromise people’s

ability to work, earn a living and conduct community and liveli-

hood functions. Long-term chronic effects – including systemic

damage and diseases, cancer, reproductive health problems and

hormonal disruption – seriously threaten the long-term survival

of rural communities. Impacts on women’s health (and that of

their children) are critical as the pesticides women farmers and

workers spray are potentially toxic to the foetus. Endocrine

disruption is particularly dangerous for unborn babies, affect-

ing growth and formation and causing systemic and functional

deficiencies and effects on future fertility.

Pesticides, poverty, food and health are inextricably

linked in a vicious cycle. With poverty, there is less

ability to take action – for example, to seek treatment

for health effects or switch to safer methods. Most

workers are reluctant to report pesticide poisoning for

fear of losing their jobs or experiencing retaliation, or

because they cannot afford time off or medical costs.

With farmers, the problems of pest resistance and resur-

gence intensify a heavy reliance on pesticides: resorting

to more poisonous pesticides, increasing the amounts

sprayed or using dangerous cocktails, all of which

intensify health impacts. Many fall into severe debt and

poverty to keep up with this increasing chemical use

and crop loss. Highly hazardous pesticides also cause

losses in the biodiversity which provides sources of

food, health and livelihoods for many rural communi-

ties. Pesticide production is a multinational industry

whose priorities are profits rather than the health of

communities and the environment.

Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific

Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP)

is the regional centre for PAN International, working

with partners to tackle pesticide problems and advocate

for alternatives. Over the years, PAN AP has evolved its

own regional priorities, which include advancing food

sovereignty for the people, particularly the marginal-

ized sections of society, and promoting gender justice

and environmental sustainability in the region. PAN

AP has been supporting small farmers, agricultural

workers, rural women and indigenous peoples in their

struggles against pesticides that impact their health and

the environment, against unsustainable agriculture and

aggressive development, and against displacement and

loss of livelihood. It seeks to strengthen people’s move-

ments for environmental protection, biodiversity-based

ecological agriculture (BEA), food sovereignty, land

rights and rural women’s empowerment.

Towards these ends, PAN AP has built strong part-

nerships with peasants, agricultural workers and rural

women’s movements in the Asia Pacific region. PAN

AP now comprises 108 network partners in the region

and has links with about 400 other civil society and

grassroots organizations, regional and global.

nvironment

air

water

oceans

climate

change

Pesticides have a variety of long-term chronic effects on the body

Image: PAN AP