Sales of glyphosate, which remains the top-selling active pesticide ingredient, fell by 30% in 2020 in Quebec. However, products used to replace it pose increased risks to health and the environment.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
After record sales in 2019, “problems with the supply of glyphosate prompted purchases of substitutes” for the herbicide, the active ingredient in Roundup. These substitute products, however, have “higher health and environmental risk indices”, which increased the pesticide risk indicator in 2020.
This is one of the conclusions of Summary of pesticide sales in Quebec 2020, released on Friday. The balance sheet shows that with sales of 4.6 million kilograms of active ingredients, the year 2020 is within the average of the last five years.
We also learn that the sales of several types of neonicotinoids, nicknamed “bee killers”, are down, as are the number of agronomic prescriptions – required since 2018 for some of the products deemed most at risk.
A news that delights Louise Hénault-Ethier, professor at the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS).
The 96% drop in sales of atrazine since the implementation of the agronomic justification, for example, “demonstrates that we can really do agriculture without this substance”, according to her, especially since this decrease is greater than replacement with other pesticides.
However, she would like to see a greater drop in the use of chlorpyrifos, which only shows a 6% decrease in sales despite the restrictions that have also affected it since 2018. This insecticide used in vegetable crops is “very harmful to the development children’s brains” and dangerous for agricultural workers, explains the professor.
The expert on the risks of pesticide use would also like to see the list of products which must be subject to agronomic justification, if not a ban, be extended. Glyphosate, for example, “is not a benign product,” she says, arguing for greater openness to other options than the systematic use of pesticides.
Pesticide sales in urban areas – which represent 18% of the total – have more than doubled compared to 2019. This increase is attributable to the use of gluten meal, a bioherbicide used against dandelion. Sales of biopesticides are also up 64% during the same period.
However, the use of these products can upset the food chain and affect biodiversity by eliminating insects from an environment. “Just because it’s a biopesticide doesn’t mean it has no impact on the environment,” emphasizes Professor Hénault-Ethier.