Last week I received an email from SAFeAGE (the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering) requesting support for a international campaign to ban the use of paraquat in herbicides around the world. So I took a closer look at the campaign by the Berne Declaration (a Swiss NGO) and unearthed a few interesting details...

paraquat verdictThe use of paraquat is obviously a contentious issue. In fact Syngenta, the Swiss-based agribusiness that uses it in it's Gramoxone herbicide has a whole web-site dedicated to it's defence: www.paraquat.com. It seems a very thinly disguised PR stunt promoting the "benefits" of paraquat and co-opt's a handful of "experts" to endorse the site. I wonder how many of the 8 academics have their research funded by Syngenta?

The most intriguing information on Syngenta's paraquat site is a downloadable PDF in the "For Journalists" section called "Why Paraquat Should Be Banned" and must have been posted there by environmental activists as it stands in blatant contrast to the rest of the spin on the site!

There is no doubt that paraquat is a dangerous substance if not used according to specifications. It is also obvious to me that agricultural practices in the third world are not regulated and enforced as they would be in, say, Europe. Indeed how many farm workers have read the precautionary measures to be taken when using paraquat and how many unscrupulous farmers overuse herbicides?

To what extent should a first-world manufacturer care about whether the users of it's products receive proper training, have the correct safety equipment, follow the proper hygene, are literate etc. To them their responsibility likely ends at having printed the mandatory material safety handling sheet and making the sale.

After all sales of paraquat are estimated to contribute over $300 million US Dollars to Syngenta's bottom line.

Anway take a look at the campaign - I know where I'll be putting my "X".