The European agricultural lobby, Copa-Cogeca, opposes reforms on pesticides, intensive farming and animal welfare

… The same method was used to defend public funding for the promotion of red and processed meat. When the Commission considered excluding these products from programmes in line with the European plan against cancer, Copa-Cogeca engaged with certain Commissioners, the wine and spirits organisations, and national associations. The restrictions were first watered down and then dropped altogether. The comment in the internal documents is succinct: “The lobbying has paid off.”

Quick Take — US Supreme Court: Bayer cannot be held liable for failing to include a warning about the risk of cancer on the label of the Roundup herbicide

unless such a warning is required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US federal agency responsible for assessing the safety of pesticides. This ruling could drastically reduce the number of new legal cases in the United States, but it does not amount to a declaration that glyphosate is harmless. The question many are therefore asking is a different one: what do we really know today about the possible health risks?…

Francesco Forastiere, environmental epidemiologist, researcher at the CNR and lecturer at the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London. “The ruling concerns the fact that the company cannot be penalised for failing to include a warning on the label that the EPA does not require. But this does not in any way mean that glyphosate has been declared safe for human health…

 To date,” explains Forastiere, “the IARC’s conclusion remains valid: the evidence is considered sufficient in laboratory animals and limited in humans. This justifies the classification of glyphosate as a probable carcinogen…”

Below: Roundup on sale at Walmart

Quick Take — Banana cultivation: a pesticide paradise

Banana plantations stretch across Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru, the Philippines and Colombia: territories where the climate is perfect for growing the fruit… and pests. To protect the crops, pesticides and herbicides are used in quantities that a European farmer would not see in an entire career.

All companies claim to follow ‘sustainability’ programmes, but the truth is that a banana at 1.49 €/kg cannot guarantee fair wages, cover ocean transports and ensure clean agriculture. Someone along the supply chain always pays the price: often the health of those who work… and those who consume

Below:

1 some of the pesticides mentioned by ‘Guess who’s coming to dinner’ (Rai3) were also found in organic bananas and are banned in the EU but enter it because there are no reciprocity clauses between South America and Europe.

This problem could be changed by a proper implementation of the Mercosur treaty .

2 the label of the Esselunga Bio Ctm Altromercatobananas.

Read also this article on Esselunga private label bananas and in the GD, in general. On pesticides you can read here.

Compiled 10 December 2025, updated 19 March 2026

Food, environment and health: what could happen with the Mercosur-EU agreement

Mercosur: it is obvious that the ‘invasion’ risk of uncontrolled products, without the safeguard clauses, is likely to exacerbate the risks to our health. But the real problem is that in the European Union there are ‘derogation’ authorisations that allow prohibited substances to be used by member countries to compete unfairly with their neighbours. So before lashing out at Mercosur, perhaps we need to put things in order in Europe