Food Rights

The report “Toxic Business; Highly Hazardous Pesticides in Kenya” presents analyses on actual data of pesticides used in 2020 in Kenya. It shows that immediate action is necessary to protect human health, the environment, and the right to healthy food in Kenya. Please see an overview of the reports content and recommendations. 

The Route to Food Initiative (RTFI) a programme of the Heinrich Böll Foundation has released the first ever report based on empirical data on Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) in Kenya. 

High use of synthetic fertilizers has tremendous effects on the health, texture and quality of the soil, affecting crop production in the long run. They quickly boost plant growth but do little to stimulate soil life, improve soil texture, or improve soil's long-term fertility. Since they are highly water-soluble, it makes it easy for them to leach into waterways.  

The Route to Food Initiative, a program component of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, has launched a special edition of the Chakula Magazine, a graphic novel entitled “The Blind Spot.”

Many pesticides are banned in the European Union. It is illegal to use them in EU Member States, yet it is allowed to produce and export them to third countries – where they pose great risks to people and their environment.

Beneficial insects provide enormous ecosystem services to Africa. However, to continue benefitting from these natural processes, sustainable farming and environmental management practices need to be promoted.

Pesticide use leads to residues in food to which many people around the world are exposed. Kenya is no exception. Global trade of pesticide products and produce means that contaminated food is every consumer’s responsibility.

In Africa, fewer pesticides are used than in other regions of the world. Nevertheless the 33 million smallholders are increasingly becoming the focus of pesticide companies. There they also sell what has been banned in the European Union.

Most of the pesticides used in Kenya are highly hazardous. Toxic products are cheaper for farmers despite their negative consequences and are mostly used on maize, wheat, coffee, potatoes, and tomatoes.

The term subsidy is often misconstrued to mean reduced costs. Far from the truth, subsidies actually increase the cost of items in the end through long bureaucratic processes needed to administer them. Subsidies therefore do not lower the cost of items. Definitely, the reduced price of a commodity’s market price is paid from our collective pocket. This could be though government coffers, taxes, or by foregoing services that could have been in the first place paid for by resources used in the subsidy program.