Rachel Carson Pesticide Action Month

On the 27th of September 1962, Rachel Carson published her famous book ‘Silent Spring’. She gave the world an important warning. But the world didn't listen to her and the system didn’t change. Silent spring is here and beekeepers are on the front line witnessing it. That is why we urge decision-makers, EU and national governments to act coherently and increase their ambitions in the pesticide reduction targets. The silent spring cannot continue. We need ambitious pesticide reduction targets now more than ever to restore biodiversity & ensure long-term food security.

To commemorate Rachel Carson's work and increase awareness on the need to put an end to pesticides, environmental NGOs launch Pesticide Action Month on the 60th anniversary of Silent Spring. During the month, many pesticide-related events will take place both in-person and online.

You can find below the full agenda of the EU events on the Rachel Carson Pesticide Action Month:

• Sep 22: Silent Spring Forum at the Terra Madre event by Slow Food in Torino, Italy with Vicki Assevero, Larissa Bombardi, Claudio Porrini and Martin Dermine (PAN Europe)

• Sep 25: Smoke & Mirrors, Exposing the PR tactics of the pesticide industry online event by PAN UK with journalist Carey Gilliam, author Anna Lappé and Jennifer Jacquet, Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU

• Sep 27: Book date and new PAN Europe report : Pesticide Paradise, how industry and officials protected the most toxic pesticides

• Sep 28: Pesticide Free Towns meeting Mayors in Brussels with Dave Goulson

• Sep 28: "Bees, farmers and young generations, surviving amongst pesticides"

  • Online debate 19:00: Thomas Waits (Green MEP) and Johanna Sandahl (president EEB)

  • Screening the movie Earth: Muted(link is external) online from September 28 at 00:00 CEST – 4 October 23:59

• Sep 29: Pesticide Free Town visiting Josephat Park with Mayor of Schaerbeek, Brussels. Park pesticide free since 2003

• Oct 1: Start of Good Food Good Farming Days of Action – Pesticide Check Up + local actions

  • Presentation of hair testing + local actions all over Europe. #DetoxEUagriculture

• Oct 6: Science, lobbies and the environment: marking the 60th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring(link is external) , Seminar with Naomi Oreskes, Jeroen van der Sluijs, Nina Holland, Andrea Saltelli and Stéphane Foucart, organised by Corporate Europe Observatory and the University of Bergen (Norway)

• Oct 20: Event in the Parliament of Slovenia: Ecological transition starts with agronomy, increasing IPM uptake and significant pesticide dependency reductions

• Oct 25: Presentation of the Pesticide Atlas, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, FoE Europe and PAN Europe with MEPs

• Oct 26: Hybrid event on pesticide free nature areas (14:00 - 16:00) with Sarah Wiener (MEP), Carsten Bruhl (University of Koblenz) and Koen Hertoge (PAN Europe)

• Oct 27: Good Food Good Farming action Brussels

• Oct 28: Solutions for the ecological transition for Croatia – reducing pesticide use by increasing IPM uptake

Main issues and sources

• There is no reduction in pesticides use:

  • Pesticides use - Global, regional and country trends 1990–2018(link is external) - FAOSTAT Analyticial Brief 16

  • Locked-in pesticides - Europe’s dependency on harmful pesticides and how to overcome it(link is external) - Foodwatch June 2022

• Alternatives do exist, see for example this overview of good practices in Integrated Pest Management (IPM):

  • Mapping good agronomic practices and alternatives to pesticides in Europe - Presentation by PAN Europe and IBMA

• The profits of pesticides sales are for the industry and retailers, the costs for society are high:

  • Pesticides: a model that’s costing us dearly(link is external) - Le Basic November 2021

• Industry has control over regulations and spreads false information:

  • A loud lobby for a silent spring(link is external) - Corporate Europe Observatory, March 2022

  • Industry writing it's own rules - PAN Europe and Générations Futures, Januari 2018

• Silent Spring is close, biodiversity collapse:

  • Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production(link is external) - IPBES 2016

  • More than 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas(link is external) - Caspar A. Hallmann et al, 2017

  • Recognizing the quiet extinction of invertebrates(link is external) - Eisenhauer et al. 2019

  • Soil biodiversity and human health(link is external) - Wall et al. 2015

• Citizens are fed up with pesticides:

  • New film ZUT, Zones Urgentes à Transformer(link is external) - September 2022

• Transformation of the food system is urgent:

  • We need a food system transformation – in the face of the Ukraine war, now more than ever(link is external) - Call by 600 scientistst in 2022

Video

• Pesticides, a model that is costing us dearly, March 2022