CHAPTER 2.1: FOOD PRODUCTION AND FOOD SECURITY
exposure. Exposure occurs not only during spraying, but also during mixing and loading of sprayers, working in recently sprayed crops, and other activities such as weeding, thinning, harvesting, washing out of pesticide containers and, importantly, hand-washing of pesticide-contaminated clothes. Women are responsible for most of this work in most countries. Further, pesticides and sprayers may be present in domestic spaces where food is prepared. A study in South Africa found a higher frequency of pesticide poisoning symptoms among planters, weeders and harvesters (61.6% of whom were female) than among sprayers (Tsimbiri et al. 2015).
Gender differences in chronic effects from exposures to pesticides are also related to biological differences. Women’s higher level of hormonally sensitive tissues make them more vulnerable to the effects of the endocrine-disrupting
in pesticides (Howard 2003).
Pregnant and breast-feeding women are at particular risk from these chemicals, as are children exposed at a time when they are developmentally vulnerable (WHO 2006). Overall, women’s generally higher percentage of body fat than men means they carry more lipophilic pesticides (and for longer periods), resulting in greater internal exposure (Watts 2007; Hardell 2003). Almost
Box 2.1.6: Pesticides in breast milk
At least 35 pesticides have been found in breast milk in a wide range of countries, indicating exposures not only of the women concerned but also of new-born children. These exposures occur at a critical period in
the child’s development, when exposure to endocrine-disrupting substances can have profound and life-long impacts. Pesticides in breast milk include persistent organochlorines such as DDT as well as organophosphates, synthetic pyrethroids, and herbicides such as atrazine (Watts 2013). More recently, the widely used herbicide glyphosate, classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015 as a “probable human carcinogen” (IARC 2015), has been measured in breast milk in the United States (MAA and SP 2014).
Box 2.1.7: Suicides and intentional poisoning using pesticides
Ingestion of pesticides is the single most common means of suicide globally, accounting for one out of three suicides or about 300,000 annually (WHO 2014). In the Punjab region of India in the late 1990s and early 2000s, suicides by male farmers using pesticides were so common that the pesticides became known
as “farmercides” (IATP 2002). Failed crops, the spiralling costs of inputs, financial hardship and loss of land are often behind farmer suicides. While global attention has been drawn to the male farmer pesticide-suicide epidemic, in rural areas of India and Sri Lanka, rates of suicide by pesticides are higher for young females aged 15- 24 (Gunnell and Eddleston 2003). In China, the only country with a higher overall rate of female than male suicides (mostly by young rural women), 62% of suicide deaths resulted from ingestion of pesticides, including rat poison (Yip and Liu 2006). In a few cases documented in India and Afghanistan (and widely suspected elsewhere) women have been murdered by being forced to drink pesticides in a form of chemical “honour killing” (The Economist 2010; Kumar et al. 2009).
100 pesticides have been identified as potentially contributing to increased risk of breast cancer, and of these at least 63 are known to have estrogenic effects in laboratory studies (Watts 2007).
On the
other hand, there are some pesticides to which males are more sensitive or that may have effects specific to their physiologies, such as those that increase risk of prostate cancer (Slotkin et al. 2008).
Genetically modified food crops: Commercial production of genetically modified (GM) crops began in the late 1990s. These crops are increasingly embedded in industrialized and commercial food systems in several countries. More than 90% of the world’s GM crops are currently grown in four countries, the United States, Brazil, Canada and Argentina. There is an extensive and growing body of literature on the economic impacts of adopting GM crops in developing and developed countries, but little evidence exists of specific impacts on female and male farmers. A gender-specific study of the introduction of insect resistant (Bt) and herbicide- tolerant (HT) maize grown by smallholder farmers in South Africa indicates that women farmers value the labour-saving benefits of HT maize and of varieties offering both insect control and labour-saving. While higher yields are the main reason for male adoption,
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