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

Quick Take — Mercosur: pesticides and hormones in food?

amicarbazone herbicide, chlorothalonil fungicide, novaluron insecticide and growth hormones in meat? It would seem so, although 1) the precautionary principle, i.e. any food may only be placed on the market if it does not present a health risk, and 2) the obligation to indicate the country of origin on the label should be respected

Milena Gabbanelli, Corriere della Sera 19 January 2026

P.S.: Brazil’s JBS is the third largest producer of food and the first of meat in the world.

Our relationship with FOOD over the last 100 YEARS has changed a lot: how?

How has our relationship with food changed over the last hundred years? In the first episode of the docuseries “What We Eat”, produced together with @foodunfolded with the support of EIT Food and co-funded by the European Union, we retrace the evolution of our relationship with what we eat, which has been turned upside down in just one century