The anti-COVID-19 vaccination in Brazil is advancing slowly today, while the government of Jair Bolsonaro promotes the approval of agrochemicals that are harmful to human health and the environment, deplored the local press.
The analysis arises because Congress will vote on this day the urgency of a bill that facilitates the release of pesticides in the country.
According to the columnist for the newspaper O Globo Bernardo Melo, while the ruralist caucus defends this proposal “tooth and nail”, environmentalists affirm that the indiscriminate approval of pesticides can represent a risk to the health of farmers and food consumers.
In this context, Melo stressed that the Bolsonaro government is “slow to approve vaccines and quick to release pesticides.”
He added that the bill creates an express route for the registration of products, and begins to focus on the ministry of the branch.
The columnist specified that the text by deputy Luiz Nishimori (PL-PR) even wants to change the way in which the legislation refers to pesticides, which would come to be called “pesticides” because, according to the speaker, this would avoid the “derogatory connotation with the public opinion”.
Without changing the rules, Brazil stands out for records in the release of chemical substances for agribusiness, and in 2021 alone, 562 pesticides were approved, according to a G1 survey cited by Melo.
Along these lines, today’s vote in Congress aims to make the legislation for the use of said substances more flexible, as well as open the market to new ones.
The proposal is described by the opposition as a poison pack or “poison package” due to its foreseeable negative impact, and is promoted by a special commission, mostly made up of deputies related to agribusiness.
It also plans to transform the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply into the main body responsible for registering pesticides.
