The use of pesticides in agriculture is a common practice in Mexico. Among the main agricultural states with the highest pesticide useage are Sinaloa, Chiapas, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Veracruz (Calderon et al., 2022).
Since 2007, pesticide consumption in Mexico has remained stable. In 2018, 53,000 tons were used, mostly herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. This places Mexico behind Brazil and Argentina, the largest users in Latin America, according to statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
The top ten pesticide consuming countries in the world are China, the USA, Argentina, Thailand, Brazil, Italy, France, Canada, Japan and India [6]. Moreover, it has been estimated that by the year 2020, the global pesticide usage will increase up to 3.5 million tonnes [7].
One example is Saarbrücken, capital of the German state Saarland: The city has not used pesticides for 25 years. Many cities and regions in the European Union (EU) have also established pesticide-free zones – in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
On April 1, 2024, Mexico was set to follow through with its 2020 commitment to ban the toxic herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Bayer's Roundup in the USA and Faena in Mexico) by 2024.
Due to health concerns and the emerging risk of cancer, glyphosate has been banned in several countries. Belgium, France and the Netherlands have banned it for household use. On the other hand, Germany, which is widely known as the house of chemicals, has also forbidden glyphosate from being used publicly.
California leads the U.S. in pesticide use.
The use of pesticides has rapidly increased in Japan since the end of World War II, significantly reducing work burdens and boosting food production.
And it's true that the country prides itself on its ecotourism and nature reserves. But in contrast to its eco-groovy image and pura vida vibe, Costa Rica has one of the highest rates of pesticide use per capita of anywhere in the world.
In the U.S., states such as Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts, each of which is predominantly located in the northeastern part of the country, are associated with the lowest levels of pesticide use.
According to University of Melbourne and Zhejiang researcher Baojing Gu, China is the world's largest consumer of agricultural chemicals, using more than 30 percent of global fertilizers and pesticides on only 9 per cent of the world's crop land.
Mexico is in the top 20 producers of organic foods worldwide, with 1.3 million acres of land dedicated to organic agriculture.
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was banned in the United States (US) by 1972; however, DDT continued to be used in Mexico for domestic food production and for malaria control until the 1990s and 2000 respectively.
Luxembourg decided to make towns pesticide free in public spaces from 1st January 2016. Flanders (Belgium) decided to make towns pesticide free as from 2015, and progress can be seen here. Denmark decided in 1998 to phase out pesticide use in all public areas by 2007.
Every pesticide is toxic if the exposure level is high enough. Therefore, no pesticide is entirely safe. Safety is based on each individual's level of risk tolerance and is subjective.
The key to how Japan was such a “clean” society was in the early acculturation to cleanliness undertaken by Japanese schools. The classrooms of elementary schools were filled with rows of fresh-faced children seated behind desks, their jackets slung on the backs of chairs.
The countries with the most known bans are those of the EU and the UK (195 banned + 269 specifically 'not approved' pesticides which are Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) 1 and/or banned by another country, 2 Turkey (212), Saudi Arabia (201) Switzerland (141), Egypt (140), Brazil (133), USA (21 banned plus 81 ' ...
Continued Roundup Use in the U.S.
Despite concerns about glyphosate, an overwhelming majority of soybean and corn plants in the U.S. today are glyphosate-resistant, and farmers use Roundup to control weeds.
As a heavily agricultural state, California uses millions of pounds of chemical pesticides. According to data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, in 2022, five of the top six counties in California that used the most pounds of pesticides were in the San Joaquin Valley.
Politics and everything else aside, Roundup works better than vinegar. If you're opposed to the use of Roundup or you want to use vinegar for other reasons, you can certainly do it, but just be aware that you're going to have to keep using it and keep using it and keep using it.
Glyphosate has been associated with respiratory effects (lung and nose), such as irritation in the nose, or asthma, in people using glyphosate products. Workers that use large amounts of glyphosate products for long periods of time may be more likely to develop respiratory effects.