Post by account_disabled on Mar 13, 2024 0:42:04 GMT -5
It all started after farmers ripped out a diverse ecosystem to plant more pineapples for investors in the 80s and 90s, creating large-scale plantations where they’re grown as monoculture crops – meaning the unnatural growth of just one type of crop in a field. The farmers began vigorously applying chemical pesticides to maintain high yields, and prevent the destruction of their crop from fruit-loving pests. After the land is used for growing pineapples, it has little function other than as a breeding ground for environmental problems like soil erosion, sedimentation and deforestation. A 2022 UNDP report found that Costa Rica uses around 34.45 kg of pesticides per hectare per year – way above the U.S. and Europe (1.75 kg per hectare in 2021, according to a UN agency) and higher than countries with similar agricultural conditions like Colombia, Guatemala and Ecuador. The report found that the pesticides used in the country are, for the most part, highly dangerous both for humans and the environment, according to UN and WHO criteria. That includes recognising these chemicals as being acutely toxic, causing long-term health hazards like cancer and birth defects, and serious, irreversible harm. News Costa Rica Was the ‘Happiest Country on Earth.’ Now It’s a Base for Drug Traffickers.
LUIS CHAPARRO The human impact Since 2007 to at least 2017, the communities of El Cairo and Milano in the Limón Province next to a Del Monte pineapple plantation, have been forced to rely on government water deliveries for drinking water, after their sources were found to have residue levels of herbicide bromacil around 20 times of that permitted by the EU. On days the truck can’t get to them, the residents are forced to drink the contaminated water, and some older people tired of carrying it back to their homes do this anyway. (Del Monte tells VICE all their pesticides are in compliance with U.S. and EU regulations. They did not respond to the claims of agrochemicals contaminating BYB Directory water sources.) Ulcers, allergies and respiratory problems are common ailments in El Milano. Those from other rural, agricultural communities experience headaches, vomiting and dizziness, along with various stomach and mouth cancers. Little monitoring has been done on chronic pesticide exposure to prove there’s a sure link, but studies by other countries link the exposure of agrochemicals to asthma, cancer, kidney damage, damage to prostate and female reproductive systems, and more.
More recently, in the Cartago Province of Cipreses, 65 km south west of El Cairo, the contamination of two rural aqueducts with the agrochemical chlorothalonil – fatal by inhalation and thought to cause cancer – has about 10,000 people receiving drinking water from a cistern since October 2022. This area produces 80 percent of the country’s vegetables, and many believe contamination is widespread, with around 65,000 people relying on similar water supplies nearby. The local authority responsible for the water does not accept it poses a risk, though, and many locals continue to drink it. In the first seven months of 2023 alone, 46 complaints have been filed with the Ministry of Environment and Energy for contamination of freshwater springs throughout the country and ten complaints for water contamination with agrochemicals. There are countless more stories of hospitalisations, the most severe cases coming from the workers on these farms. Investigations from the Guardian and Costa Rican newspaper La Voz de Guanacaste have shone a light on brutal labour conditions: One man lost his right leg on a farm when his boss pressured him to clean a high-voltage area. Another worker was fired after founding a union and says many companies blacklist you for being part of one.
LUIS CHAPARRO The human impact Since 2007 to at least 2017, the communities of El Cairo and Milano in the Limón Province next to a Del Monte pineapple plantation, have been forced to rely on government water deliveries for drinking water, after their sources were found to have residue levels of herbicide bromacil around 20 times of that permitted by the EU. On days the truck can’t get to them, the residents are forced to drink the contaminated water, and some older people tired of carrying it back to their homes do this anyway. (Del Monte tells VICE all their pesticides are in compliance with U.S. and EU regulations. They did not respond to the claims of agrochemicals contaminating BYB Directory water sources.) Ulcers, allergies and respiratory problems are common ailments in El Milano. Those from other rural, agricultural communities experience headaches, vomiting and dizziness, along with various stomach and mouth cancers. Little monitoring has been done on chronic pesticide exposure to prove there’s a sure link, but studies by other countries link the exposure of agrochemicals to asthma, cancer, kidney damage, damage to prostate and female reproductive systems, and more.
More recently, in the Cartago Province of Cipreses, 65 km south west of El Cairo, the contamination of two rural aqueducts with the agrochemical chlorothalonil – fatal by inhalation and thought to cause cancer – has about 10,000 people receiving drinking water from a cistern since October 2022. This area produces 80 percent of the country’s vegetables, and many believe contamination is widespread, with around 65,000 people relying on similar water supplies nearby. The local authority responsible for the water does not accept it poses a risk, though, and many locals continue to drink it. In the first seven months of 2023 alone, 46 complaints have been filed with the Ministry of Environment and Energy for contamination of freshwater springs throughout the country and ten complaints for water contamination with agrochemicals. There are countless more stories of hospitalisations, the most severe cases coming from the workers on these farms. Investigations from the Guardian and Costa Rican newspaper La Voz de Guanacaste have shone a light on brutal labour conditions: One man lost his right leg on a farm when his boss pressured him to clean a high-voltage area. Another worker was fired after founding a union and says many companies blacklist you for being part of one.