Atlas

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Facts and figures about toxic chemicals in agriculture

In beer and in honey, on fruit and on vegetables, in grass on playgrounds and even in urine and in the air – traces of pesticides from agriculture can be detected everywhere. That pesticides negatively impact human health, biodiversity, water, and soil is not a new insight by any means The new and first Pesticide Atlas reveals new facts and data on global pesticide use and trade, its impact on people, their health and biodiversity, and alternative solutions.

Deutsche Version | US edition | En français | En español | In italiano | Wersja polska | Nigeria version | Kenya version | Türkçe versiyonu | Edição brasileira | Edition sénégalaise | Edición mexicana | Korean Edition (English version) | MENA Region edition

Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | Global Dialogue, Friends of the Earth Europe, Pesticide Action Network Europe, BUND für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland

Published: October 2022

The Pesticide Atlas raises awareness, provides comprehensive information and fosters nuanced debate around agrochemicals used for pest control. It sheds light on different aspects from scientific research, including the impact of pesticides on soils, waters, biodiversity and health, and highlights alternative models with a more stringent implementation of integrated pest management where synthetic substances are only a last resort option.

Press release | Europe must slash pesticide use to protect people’s and planet’s health

Press release

New ‘Pesticide Atlas’ by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Friends of the Earth Europe and PAN Europe reveals toxic global impact of hazardous chemicals used in agriculture.

Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Friends of the Earth Europe, Pesticide Action Network Europe, Joan Lanfranco

All articles from the Pesticide Atlas 2022

Pesticide Atlas 2022: Foreword

12 brief lessons about pesticides in agriculture

Pesticides and agriculture: dangerous substances

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Parts of global crop production are lost to pests and plant pathogens each year. Pesticides have been designed to prevent these yield losses – but they also give rise to new problems.

Lisa Tostado

Corporations: big profits with toxic trade

Pesticide Atlas 2022

The global pesticide market is growing – and there are only a few corporations that are dividing it up among themselves. They are increasingly investing in countries in the Global South, where pesticides are less strictly regulated.

Carla Hoinkes

Pesticide use in the EU: noxious status quo for people and planet

Pesticide Atlas 2022

The European Union is one of the world’s biggest markets for pesticides. Policies to reduce their use have not been very successful so far. The lack of standardized data makes monitoring and comparing countries difficult.

Lisa Tostado

Approval procedures: underestimated risks

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Before they are put on the market, pesticides go through an approval process in which their impacts on human health and the environment are tested. But their indirect effects on food chains and biodiversity receive little attention, neither do the effects of pesticide mixtures that are hard to predict.

Carsten Brühl, Johann Zaller

Health: severe consequences

Pesticide Atlas 2022

385 million people fall ill every year from pesticide poisoning. The United Nations intend to improve the worldwide handling of pesticides to prevent harm, but there is little effective legal regulation.

Wolfgang Bödeker

Soils: impact on the invisible ecosystem

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Insufficient attention is being paid to pesticides accumulating in the soil, where they exert direct and indirect adverse effects on soil life – sometimes for decades.

Johann Zaller

Residues: toxic side dish

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Pesticide use leads to residues in food to which many people are exposed – especially in the Global South. But as an import, contaminated food can also end up on European plates.

Dr. Silke Bollmohr, Susan Haffmans

Biodiversity: extinction in full swing

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Experts have been warning for years that biodiversity is at stake. Pesticides have been identified as one of the causes for why the abundance of animals and plant species is deteriorating so quickly and disastrously.

Katrin Wenz

Beneficial insects: nature's little helper

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Insects such as ladybugs or predatory wasps act as natural enemies against pests and as effective plant protectors. They are good for the environment and help cutting costs – but their habitats are under threat from pesticide use.

Henrike von der Decken, Moritz Nabel

Water: go with the flow

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Studies regularly reveal how pesticides contaminate rivers, lakes, coastal waters and groundwater. The pollutants often originate in agriculture and enter surface water via infiltration, surface runoff and drift.

Dr. Silke Bollmohr

Long-range transport: gone with the wind

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Pesticides rarely stay in the place where they have been applied. Wind can move dust, particles, and droplets to residential areas close to agricultural land – or carry it to places many kilometres away. Approval processes are largely ignoring this problem.

Johanna Bär, Johannes Heimrath, Anna Satzger

Insect decline: an ecological armaggedon

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Insects provide pollination services to flowering plants, control pests and ensure abundant harvests. For a long time their populations have declined dramatically – causing disaster for humans and nature. Pesticides are considered a major reason for the decline.

Dave Goulson

Hardly hazardous pesticides: a global human rights concern

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Substances that are proven to present a particularly high level of acute or chronic risk to health or the environment are commonly referred to as Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs). Far too rarely are these substances withdrawn from circulation – especially in the Global South they cause great harm.

Dr. Silke Bollmohr, Susan Haffmans

Genetic engineering: modified crops, more pesticides

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Genetically modified crops were supposed to reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture, reduce workloads, and increase crop yields. These promises could not be kept.

Martha Mertens

Smallholder farmers: new markets, less regulation

Pesticide Atlas 2022

In Africa, fewer pesticides are used than in other regions of the world. Nevertheless the 33 million smallholders are increasingly becoming the focus of pesticide companies. There they also sell what has been banned in the European Union.

Layla Liebetrau

Imports and exports: banned but sold anyway

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Many pesticides are banned in the European Union. It is illegal to use them in EU Member States, yet it is allowed to produce and export them to third countries – where they pose great risks to people and their environment.

Dr. Silke Bollmohr, Susan Haffmans

Glyphosate: a manufactured controversy

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Bayer and other companies are fighting for the re-approval of glyphosate in the EU. To do so, they must prove that their pesticide active substance is not carcinogenic. But the studies presented are old – and point to the opposite.

Helmut Butscher-Schaden

Gender: at the forefront of the exposure

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Women working in agriculture often have lower levels of income and lack decision-making power. There is urgent need for gender equality to achieve food security and protection from pesticide exposure.

Ilang-Ilang Quijano

Youth survey: change wanted

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Young people in Germany are worried about pesticide use in agriculture and call on politicians to take action. They demand more emphasis on ecological management of fields and plead for stronger support for farmers.

Dr. Anke Zühlsdorf, Dr. Dominic Lemken, Prof. Dr. Achim Spiller

Brazil: more cultivation, more pesticides, more exports

Pesticide Atlas 2022

As one of the world’s largest importers of agrochemicals and exporters of agriculture goods, Brazil sets record for pesticide consumption. A significant part of the pesticides used there is produced in the European Union – and highly hazardous.

Larissa Mies Bombardi

Digital transformation: who really benefits from digitalization

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Agricultural robotics, drones, and algorithm-driven technologies for a new way of farming are becoming big business. They are supposed to help farms cut pesticide use, but there are serious doubts whether this will work.

Heike Holdinghausen

EU policies: objectives are not enough

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Even though the EU’s pesticide legislation is the most sophisticated, it has failed to achieve a reduction in use. The EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy seeks to change that. Many questions remain.

Clara Bourgin, André Prescher-Spiridon

Pesticide-free regions: good examples

Pesticide Atlas 2022

All over the world, projects are proving that an ecological future is possible: More and more cities, states, and regions are trying to slash pesticide use; or even ban chemical agents completely from their fields and land.

Ulrike Bickel

All infographics from the Pesticide Atlas 2022

In cooperation with

Check out our atlases

Pestizidatlas 2022 - Deutsche Version

Atlas

Der Pestizidatlas zeigt in 19 Kapiteln Daten und Fakten rund um die bisherigen und aktuellsten Entwicklungen, Zusammenhänge und Folgen des weltweiten Handels und Einsatzes von Pestiziden in der Landwirtschaft.

Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Friends of the Earth Europe, BUND für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland

Published: September 2021

There is hardly any other food that pollutes our environment and the climate as badly as meat. However, no government in the world currently has a concept of how meat consumption and production can be significantly reduced. But if the sector continues to grow as it has up to now, almost 360 million tons of meat will be produced and consumed worldwide in 2030. With ecological effects that are hard to imagine.

Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | Global Dialogue

Published: Third English edition: December 2023

Sustainable transport and mobility are key to tackle the climate crisis and to achieve the targets of the European Green Deal. However, transport today accounts for nearly 30 percent of the CO₂ emissions within the European Union. How can the EU reduce its transport and mobility emissions while connecting citizens, creating green jobs and leading the innovation in the sector?

Insect Atlas 2020

Atlas

Insects are a fundamental part of the basis of life in our world. The extent of insect mortality in Germany, in Europe and worldwide is therefore dramatic. The Insect Atlas 2020 explains why the industrial agricultural industry in particular is threatening the habitats of insects so massively, what ways out are possible, and many other exciting aspects. It provides data and facts about beneficial and harmful insects in agriculture, formulates criticism of the overly hesitant policy to protect them.

Agriculture Atlas 2019

Atlas

Facts and Figures on EU Farming Policy: No other economic activity is so closely interwoven with the human and natural environment as is agriculture. If farming changes, so too the ecological and social systems that it hosts must change. The Agriculture Atlas shows how closely Europe’s agriculture is intertwined with our lives and our living space and pushes for a better, fundamentally different set of agricultural policies.

Agrifood Atlas 2017

Atlas

Industrial agriculture is responsible for both colossal environmental and climate damage as well as global injustice. It is high time for a socially and politically oriented regulation of the agrifood industry. We hope that this atlas will stimulate a broad-based social debate on this vital topic.

Soil Atlas 2015

Atlas

Through misuse, we lose 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil every year. For the International Year of Soils in 2015, this Atlas shows, why the soil should concern us all. Jointly published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies.

Contacts

Louise Mollenhauer

Head of Programme - Climate, Agriculture and Trade, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | Global Dialogue

Joan Lanfranco

Head of Communications and Outreach, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | Global Dialogue

Atlas

Pesticide Atlas 2022

Facts and figures about toxic chemicals in agriculture

Deutsche Version | US edition | En français | En español | In italiano | Wersja polska | Nigeria version | Kenya version | Türkçe versiyonu | Edição brasileira | Edition sénégalaise | Edición mexicana | Korean Edition (English version) | MENA Region edition

Böll·Europe Podcast #6 | The toxic global impact of pesticides

Silent Spring (1/3): Glyphosate reloaded

Silent Spring (2/3): Pesticide lobby in times of war

Silent Spring (3/3): What are the prospects for pesticide policy?

Press release | Europe must slash pesticide use to protect people’s and planet’s health

All articles from the Pesticide Atlas 2022

Pesticide Atlas 2022: Foreword

12 brief lessons about pesticides in agriculture

Pesticides and agriculture: dangerous substances

Corporations: big profits with toxic trade

Pesticide use in the EU: noxious status quo for people and planet

Approval procedures: underestimated risks

Health: severe consequences

Soils: impact on the invisible ecosystem

Residues: toxic side dish

Biodiversity: extinction in full swing

Beneficial insects: nature's little helper

Water: go with the flow

Long-range transport: gone with the wind

Insect decline: an ecological armaggedon

Hardly hazardous pesticides: a global human rights concern

Genetic engineering: modified crops, more pesticides

Smallholder farmers: new markets, less regulation

Imports and exports: banned but sold anyway

Glyphosate: a manufactured controversy

Gender: at the forefront of the exposure

Youth survey: change wanted

Brazil: more cultivation, more pesticides, more exports

Digital transformation: who really benefits from digitalization

EU policies: objectives are not enough

Pesticide-free regions: good examples

All infographics from the Pesticide Atlas 2022

In cooperation with

Check out our atlases

Pestizidatlas 2022 - Deutsche Version

Insect Atlas 2020

Agriculture Atlas 2019

Agrifood Atlas 2017

Soil Atlas 2015

Contacts

Louise Mollenhauer

Joan Lanfranco