Pesticide bill heads to the Senate plenary

The Federal Senate's Environment Committee (CMA) today approved, with modifications, bill 1459/2022, which changes the legislation on pesticides. The next step is the vote in the Senate plenary. Senator Tereza Cristina (in the photo) presented a request asking for urgency in this last stage.

Among the various modification proposals, two stand out.

The first, rejected by the commission, provided for the establishment of a concept of unacceptable risk. The rapporteur of the matter, senator Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES), considered: "we believe it is necessary to suppress item LIII of article 2, which defines the concept of 'unacceptable risk'. This concept has no clear definition, which would lead to, in our view, an increased risk of judicialization and legal uncertainty regarding the delimitation of this term".

On the other hand, the attempt to adapt Brazil to the practice of most countries in the world and use the term "pesticide" instead of "pesticides" was unsuccessful.

Again, the rapporteur: "we propose replacing the term 'pesticide' with 'pesticides' throughout the text. Even though there is an appeal from the agribusiness sector regarding the inadequacy of this word, due to the pejorative tone that can be associated with national agribusiness unfairly, we understand that the term 'pesticides' must be maintained in the new legal framework, even in obedience to the constitutional text, which uses it to name these products in § 4 of article 220 of the Federal Constitution".

See the full report, presence and deliberations of the Environment Committee of the Federal Senate in the PDF below...