Banning pesticides would put food security at risk and increase food prices, warns UMFFAAC

“It is important that measures be taken towards sustainable agriculture, but this does not mean that commercial agriculture should be limited, the only one that can guarantee sufficient food production and a pesticide ban agricultural and livestock production would collapse, putting the country’s food security at risk,” said the president of the Mexican Union of Agrochemical Manufacturers and FormulatorsUMFFAAC, Luis Edward Gonzalez Cepeda.

Interviewed at the conclusion of the First Open Parliament on Pesticides and Fertilizers held in the Senate of the Republic, González Cepeda agreed with the warning made by the Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Víctor Manuel Villalobos Arámbula in the sense of “if it is worth or not make hasty decisions”, in reference to the prohibition of pesticides, for all the implications that said prohibition would have on food production.

The president of the UMFFAAC also said that the Open Parliament offered the opportunity to express the points of view of all the actors of the agri-food industry and that beyond the advantages and disadvantages of organic agriculture and the agro-industrial model, it is that “the countryside needs to modernize, use technology, and, in particular, deploy joint efforts to educate and train producers for the proper management of phytosanitary products, essential to generate the production of crops that the country requires”.

For his part, the president of the Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture (AMHPAC), Alfredo Díaz Belmonte, said that the regulation of pesticides in the country “must be based on studies and scientific evidence and not based on prejudices, because the stakes in the country are too high for public policy in the sector to agriculture is defined according to ideologies and not with the rigor required by the treatment of a matter such as the use and management of pesticides”.

The director of the Confederation of Agricultural Associations of the State of Sinaloa (CAADES) Marte Vega Román, also appreciated the importance of the Open Parliament and noted that “senators must consider in the process of regulating pesticides, the forceful contributions presented by academics, researchers and officials such as the Secretary of SADER and the Institute National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP) in the sense that the strict prohibition of pesticides would have a very important effect on the agricultural production of the country”.

The director of the National Association of Citrus Processors (ANAPROCI) Humberto Arenas Reyes, also agreed with what was expressed in Parliament by various agricultural producers and said that “the problem is not that pesticides are “dangerous” in themselves, but that it is the doses and the proper use and application of these inputs that that should guide regulatory policy.

For his part, the CEO of the National Association of Berry Exporters (Aneberries) Juan José Flores, also called on the senators to objectively assess “the serious implications that a pesticide ban would have and to learn from the experiences of other countries, such as Spain and Sri Lanka, in which Hasty decisions were made that later had to be reversed.”