274 Pesticides are Poison
Pesticide Education
If everyone stopped using pesticides tomorrow, we could end the epidemic of
pesticide poisonings and begin to restore our land, air, and water to health.
Educating ourselves and our communities about the harm pesticides cause,
and learning how to grow food without chemicals, can help make this happen.
A first step might be to bring people together in your village, town, or
neighborhood to talk about their experience with pesticides.
Once people are gathered, decide what things are most important to your
community. Is it personal health? Is it water pollution from pesticides? Is it the
cost of pesticides? After there is some understanding of the problems, the next
step will be to decide on a goal or goals. Maybe people will want to organize
pesticide safety trainings, or learn how to farm without pesticides.
We know
pesticides are
dangerous.
But we still use
them every
day. What can
we do?
We can just
refuse to use
pesticides!
Then we would
lose our jobs!
I need to feed
my children.
We should learn
more about how
pesticides hurt
us and try to
come up with
some solutions
together.
Farmers organize to stay independent
A group of farmers in Bangladesh started a program to talk about
the pesticides they used and who they bought them from. Their goals
were to use pesticides safely and to save money on their farms.
They found out their local bank was working with the large
agribusiness corporation Monsanto. The bank and the company had
made an agreement that loans could be used only to buy products
from Monsanto. This forced farmers to use pesticides and seeds made
by Monsanto, and did not allow them to take out loans to buy other
things, such as farm animals or organic seeds.
When these farmers found out about the partnership between
Monsanto and the bank, they began to organize and speak to many
other farmers.
The farmers protested at the bank and refused to take out new
loans. After many protests, the bank stopped working with Monsanto.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012