Cell Reports Sustainability (Mar 2024)
Pesticide-related risks embodied in global soybean trade
Abstract
Summary: Pesticides may help safeguard food security but endanger the local ecosystem and farmer health. The globalization of the food trade is masking such impacts by separating production from consumption, and its effects on pesticide use and their related risks remain unclear. Here, we provide a map of the environmental and health risks associated with pesticide footprints along the soybean trade across 197 countries. We find that approximately 64% of soybeans were traded globally, embodying ∼55% of environmental-health risks linked to ∼108 kt of pesticide use. Notably, trade soybean pesticide footprints and their associated environmental-health risks are concentrated in a few hotspot nations, including the USA, Brazil, and Argentina. About 30 kt of future increase in soybean pesticide use and ∼6% of their related environmental-health risks can be offset by reducing 80% of soybean traded from high-pesticide-use-intensity nations to lower ones. Our results highlight the necessity of rethinking the role of agricultural trade in global pesticide management. Science for society: The widespread use of pesticides in food production systems impacts human, animal, and ecosystem health. Food trade complicates the issue, as it can separate consumption from production, shifting pesticide-related burdens from consumers to producers across regions. However, there is a lack of clarity on pesticide footprints and their associated impacts embodied in the global food trade, impeding sustainable pesticide management. Our research develops an integrated framework to assess nation-specific environmental and health burdens linked to pesticide use along the global soybean trade. Our study identifies a concentrated pattern of embodied soybean pesticide footprints and their related risks, as well as a declining contribution of trade to overall pesticide-related risks. Our findings reveal the potential of trade in reducing environmental-health risks associated with soybean pesticides and underscore the need to rethink the role of agricultural trade in global pesticide management.
