Pesticides next frontier in China food safety

By Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's farmers overuse pesticides, skip protective clothing and have at their fingertips an array of banned and counterfeit products, raising another area of concern in the country's fragile food chain.

Spraying chemicals on crops improperly or using products that may be fake or banned risks the health of China's hundreds of millions of farmers and could lead to unsafe levels of residues in fruits and vegetables, experts say.

"The government has to stop banned or illegal pesticides being available in the market," said Angus Lam, a Greenpeace Campaign Manager for Food and Agriculture based in the southern city of Guangzhou.

China banned five high toxicity pesticides as of January 1, but Lam said old stock was still in the market, in the hands of traders, retailers and farmers themselves.

The government pledged last week to step up inspections in its food industry, saying checks on fertilizers and pesticides would be one of the priority areas.

That comes after tainted animal feed exported from China led to the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs in the United States and prompted a recall of more than 100 pet food brands, bringing the country's food safety standards under increased scrutiny.

Evidence suggests that China's farmers routinely misuse pesticides and fail to protect themselves.

A project in the southwestern province of Sichuan undertaken by CropLife Asia, a federation representing manufacturers, found that after training, more farmers used personal protective equipment and more read product labels and followed the instructions.

The training resulted in a decrease in pesticide use and significant cost savings.

But the biggest behavioral change the study found was that farmers properly disposed of pesticide containers -- previously they had tossed empty waste containers into their fields.

MISGUIDED POLICIES

Some experts say that recent government policies that lower the price of pesticides are also misguided.

"Many governments feel that they're doing the farmers a favor by promoting policies that create lower prices for these products, said George Fuller, executive director of CropLife Asia. "The unintended consequence of that is that the farmers don't have a reason to use them properly."

Not only are banned substances available, but Fuller estimates that some 20 percent of the pesticides sold in China are fakes.

"The counterfeiters are good. Sometimes it's very difficult for a farmer to know that he's buying a counterfeit product."