P

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ticide s s on

t a Pla

a consumer guide to pesticide issues in the food chain

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Acknowledgements
Pesticides on a Plate: a consumer guide to pesticide issues in the food chain
Design and layout: Rebecca Richings Published by: Pesticide Action Network UK Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT Tel: 020 7065 0905 admin@pan-uk.org www.pan-uk.org Photos are copyright of PAN UK, unless otherwise credited. PAN UK, London, 2007. PAN UK is a registered charity (UK No. 327215)
This booklet has been produced with the financial assistance of theEuropean Community and the Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation for PAN UK's project entitled Food & Fairness: Changing supply chains for African livelihoods and environment. The views expressed herein are those of PAN UK and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Community.

ISBN: 978 0 9549542 6 0

Contents
1. What are pesticides? 2. Why should I be concerned? 3. How do I know what pesticides my food contains? 4. How and why do pesticides end up in our food? 5. How can we avoid pesticides ending up in our food? 6. What about the effects on farmers and farm workers? 7. What are supermarkets doing about this? 8. Are pesticides in food and farming the only problem? 9. Who should pay to solve these problems? 10. Some good news stories 11. What can I do personally? 12. Further reading and resources 2 5 9 13 16 18 22 24 26 28 31 34

1. What are pesticides?
Hundreds of natural and manmade harmful or poisonous substances surround us in our 21st century world. Pesticides are just one group but they are unique in being the only chemicals designed and deliberately released into the environment by humans, to kill or damage other living organisms. You can tell this from their name- the ending ‘-cide’ literally means ‘killer’ in Latin. The term pesticide covers a wide range of chemicals used to control insect pests (insecticides), plant diseases