Germany: There is almost no place left without pesticides

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According to a study, pesticides applied are spreading more widely than expected. According to the researchers, there are probably no more unpolluted places in Germany. Organic farmers fear the consequences.

For the project, measurements were carried out at 163 locations across Germany between 2014 and 2019. A total of 152 active substances were detected in all samples, 138 of which come from agricultural sources. Around 30 percent of these are no longer permitted in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Spread not only when spraying

The pesticides not only spread via visible drifting of spray droplets when they are applied to the fields, but also on invisible paths. When the spraying agent dries, parts of it get into the air as gases, can easily be absorbed by the wind and thus transported over long distances.

Other spray agents give off less gas. To do this, they bond firmly to the soil particles. In drought, strong winds or when working in the fields, they also swirl high up.

Kruse-Plass said, and very fine soil particles are similar to gases and can get into the higher atmospheres because they are very light and the wind can take them with it.

Pesticides at the North Pole

Geophysicists who use zeppelin and satellite, laser beams and air filters to explore the atmosphere made similar discoveries. In addition to particles of natural origin, they also found pesticides even in deserted areas. This long-distance transport is the research field of Gerhard Lammel, chemist at the Max PIanck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz and at Masaryk University in Brno in the Czech Republic.

In the last decade, the pesticides that have now been approved have increasingly been found in places where they should not actually arrive, namely far away from the areas where they are used, for example over the central North Sea, over North Greenland or on Svalbard.

The fine toxic particles were found in the glacial ice and in the atmosphere over the North Pole. But you also get to clean air areas and natural landscapes where people go on vacation. They sink and then blow up again, whether for months or years, is unknown.

Organic farming damaged

This is a big problem, especially for organic farmers: Beekeeper Sebastian Seusing lost four tons of honey in 2019, the entire annual harvest.

Camille Hoonaert from the Seusing beekeeping said, the bees were standing in a field where dandelions were blooming. In full bloom, when the weather was good, spraying was carried out with the total herbicide glyphosate.

As a result, your honey was contaminated up to 152 times the limit value, a damage of 60,000 euros. The beekeeping has meanwhile given up.

Demand for compensation

This also puts organic farmers in a legal bind. You have to guarantee for clean products. But through no fault of their own, they could ruin pesticides blown in. Claims for compensation against conventional farmers have so far come to nothing and take years. To change that, organic growers and organic traders joined forces to form an alliance for agriculture suitable for grandchildren and commissioned the measurement study.

Boris Frank, chairman of the alliance is convinced, the topic concerns everyone. Our demand is that the five pesticides that spread most widely in Germany over the air must be banned immediately. It's about us all, about the population in Germany. We all breathe pesticides in the air. That is an unknown risk to health and to nature, to our environment.

Pesticide industry is fighting back

For damaged organic farmers, the alliance is demanding a compensation fund, fed by the pesticide manufacturers with ten percent of their annual sales around 110 million euros. Frank Gemmer thinks little of that. He is the managing director of the Agricultural Industry Association, which represents 35 German pesticide manufacturers. In relation to fact, he refers to measurements made by industry in approval procedures.

Gemmer said, the traces that we found are well below the limit values. If there are really any indications here, you have to evaluate it on this database and only then can you give further statements. At the moment we see absolutely no point in discussing a compensation fund here.

Politicians reacted to the protests of the organic farmers. The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture announced its own air measurement program, a so-called monitoring. With possible consequences for future approval procedures for pesticides. However, this can take years.