Brazilian government clears highly toxic pesticides

Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture has cleared 40 new products containing pesticides for sale on the market. The Federal Register of January 10 included the registration of 28 pesticides and their main active ingredients. Among these was sulfoxaflor, a new arrival in Brazil but a substance already surrounded with controversy in the United States. The other compounds are familiar to Brazilian farmers, but will now be produced by more companies and used on more crops, including food crops.

On Friday’s issue of the Federal Register, the General Coordinator of Pesticides of the Ministry of Agriculture published a list of over 131 registration requests for pesticides, submitted over the last three months of 2018. They will be subject to technical evaluations from three government agencies.

Experts indicate that permissions for new registrations are accelerating, having reached an “unbridled level.”

The authorizations published on January 10 were approved last year, during the final months of the Michel Temer government. In the first two weeks of Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, a further 12 products were registered for sale on the market, as ascertained by Agência Pública and Repórter Brasil. Their approval will be published on the federal register in the coming days, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply.

Of the 28 products already published on the Federal Register, one is considered to be extremely toxic: methomyl, the active ingredient in insecticides recommended for crops such as cotton, potatoes, soy, kale, and corn. Besides methomyl, another four products are classed as highly toxic, while nearly all of them pose dangers to the environment, according to official classifications. Fourteen are “very dangerous,” while 12 are “dangerous.”

The most toxic of are methomyl and imazethapyr, which was permitted for sale by four companies. These are active chemicals, in other words, ingredients to produce pesticides which will be sold to farmers.

Only three products are classed as “slightly toxic,” the lowest level of the toxicity scale: Bio-Imune, Paclobutrazol 250 and Excellence Mig-66, recommended for mango crops and even organic farming.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the products do not pose...