According to the report, one in five cups of coffee contains toxic pesticide residues
An analysis by four organizations shows that 59 percent of the active ingredients in pesticides used in coffee cultivation are banned in the EU
- The report reveals significant pesticide use in conventional coffee cultivation: 159 active pesticide ingredients are used
- More than half of the pesticides used are banned in the EU, with serious consequences for workers’ health, biodiversity, and the environment in coffee-producing countries
- Coffee Watch, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, the INKOTA Network, and PAN UK are calling for a ban on pesticides prohibited in the EU
Conventional coffee is contaminated with highly toxic pesticides that are banned in Germany. This is the finding of a joint report by Coffee Watch, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, the INKOTA Network, and the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK. The report identifies a total of 159 active pesticide ingredients used in coffee production. Of these, 59 percent are banned in the European Union. The pesticides are used primarily in coffee-producing countries, where they endanger people and the environment, yet they still find their way into the coffee cups of people in Germany via global supply chains. The report exposes the unjust double standards in the coffee industry.
Silke Bollmohr of the INKOTA Network and lead author of the report explains: “The report clearly highlights the double standards in the coffee industry: Pesticides classified as too dangerous in the EU are exported to coffee-producing countries and used there under significantly weaker safety standards. The coffee produced in this way then finds its way back into our supermarkets—but others bear the health consequences: workers, their families, and the populations in the growing regions. They fall ill, while wealthy countries protect themselves from precisely these risks. This is environmental injustice and a human rights issue. Politicians and companies must no longer profit from a system that shifts the risks onto people and ecosystems in coffee-growing countries.”
Svane Bender, Head of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity at DUH, comments: "The damage caused to people and nature by highly toxic pesticides in coffee cultivation is catastrophic. Germany alone imports an average of 1.1 million metric tons of unroasted coffee annually, generating profits of up to 12.9 billion euros per year for coffee companies. The consequences are sick workers, destroyed biodiversity, and poisoned soil. We demand that the export of pesticides banned in this country be stopped as soon as possible. German coffee companies must also support farmers in the growing regions in the pesticide-free and sustainable conversion of their plantations.”
The pesticides used have been proven to be linked to serious health problems such as cancer and reproductive damage. According to the report, about one in five cups of coffee contains toxic pesticide residues. While consumers may come into contact with pesticide residues in this way, people in the producing countries bear the greatest burden. They are directly exposed to the pesticides, often without adequate protective clothing. For some toxins, the residues are even more persistent, such as glyphosate residues (known as AMPA), which were detected in 72 percent of the coffee samples.
In Brazil alone, approximately 19.8 million liters of pesticides were used in coffee cultivation in 2015—more per hectare than in the cultivation of corn or soybeans. In Vietnam, pesticide use has at least tripled over the past 25 years. In Kenya, coffee cultivation accounts for 27 percent of the country’s total pesticide use, even though coffee occupies less than 1 percent of the cultivated land.
Coffee Watch, DUH, the INKOTA Network, and PAN are calling on the German federal government and the EU to end the export of pesticides banned in Europe and to hold companies more accountable for helping to finance the transition to environmentally sustainable and human rights-compliant coffee production.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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