Strawberries grown in Spain are among the least contaminated with pesticides in the entire European Union, according to a study published today by PAN Europe (source in Spanish) together with several NGOs that have analysed strawberry samples in 11 countries.
Across Europe, 88% of the strawberries tested contain pesticide residues. Fifty-eight per cent of the strawberries are contaminated with PFAS, the so-called 'forever chemicals' because of their persistence in the body and the environment, and more than half of the pesticides detected belong to the group of the most hazardous substances authorised in the EU, the candidates for substitution, which should have been progressively phased out since 2011.
Spanish strawberries are the least contaminated
Spain is well below that average. The study detected only two pesticides in one of the two Spanish conventionally grown samples analysed, both authorised and below the legal limit.
When it comes to organic strawberries, both in Spain and in the rest of Europe, they were found to be completely free of residues in all the samples analysed, which reinforces organic consumption as the safest option in the face of these toxic substances.
"Not only are organic strawberries free of pesticides, but so is a high proportion of conventionally grown fruit, which shows that Spain can and must farm without pesticides," says Kistiñe García, coordinator of the toxic substances group at Ecologistas en Acción.
The authors of the report argue that these results call into question the need to relax pesticide rules, and they are calling for a stricter application of the rules already in place.
"Semi-slavery" among women workers in the sector
Koldo Hernández, the organisation's water coordinator, also points to other impacts of intensive strawberry cultivation, such as high water consumption and the working conditions of women workers in the sector, which he describes as semi-slavery.
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