Health Impacts and Other Harms Escalate as the Super El Niño and Continuing Global Conflicts Intensify Risks
Today, the Global Alliance for the Future of Food released a new report revealing a comprehensive analysis of the many crises generated by the use of fossil fuel-derived synthetic fertilizers and pesticides throughout agriculture and food production around the world.
“Our latest report presents a sobering truth: the multitude of impacts from the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides locks our food systems into a spiraling dependency on fossil fuels.” said Anna Lappé, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food. “The analysis we share exposes the consequences of these impacts—from environmental degradation to chronic disease and biodiversity loss—and sets out solutions to help support a model of food production that centres people and the planet.”
An over-reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
Produced with contributions from 29 experts in food production, human health, and the environment, the report, “Toxic Dependency: How Agrochemicals Lock In Food System Vulnerability,” finds that the harms of agrochemical-dependent food systems—which include environmental degradation, chronic disease, eroded farmer livelihoods, and rising food prices from global shocks—are entrenched and reinforced through policies and funding streams driven by the fossil-fuel industry and its allies.
The report highlights the extreme reliance on synthetic inputs and how the current global food system includes financial support for the status quo, including:
- In 2023, total pesticide use reached 3.7 million metric tonnes of chemicals. The result is that nearly two-thirds of all agricultural land worldwide is at risk of pesticide pollution from more than one active ingredient.
- More than half the world’s industrial-scale monocultures dependent on agrochemicals are grown for animal feed or biofuels, not human consumption.
- Agrochemical pesticide exposure is linked to cancers, neurological disorders, and reproductive harm, along with increased incidents of self-harm, where regulations are weak.
- Between 2013 and 2018, support for current industrial agricultural production methods averaged almost USD 540 billion per year. These subsidies can be repurposed to fund more sustainable agriculture systems.
- Fossil fuel subsidies further skew the playing field: in 2024 fossil fuel subsidies reached USD 7 trillion, keeping the cost of synthetic fertilizer production artificially low.
A confluence of crises reveal growing vulnerabilities
With fossil fuel production and transport impacted by conflicts in the Middle East, the World Food Programme has warned that 45 million people could be pushed into food insecurity due to secondary impacts of the conflicts. At the same time, the “Super El Niño” weather system that is rapidly intensifying could render an additional 49 million people food insecure.
The report’s authors assert that the current confluence of crises reveals the growing vulnerabilities of fossil-fuel dependent food production. They call for a systemic shift to redirect subsidies into climate adaptation programs that eschew fossil-fuel derived inputs.
“Climate shocks, geopolitical tensions, and fertilizer disruptions keep driving up grocery bills while squeezing farmers,” said Nicole Pita, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). “But we can’t fix volatile food prices until we break food’s dependence on fossil fuels and toxic agrochemicals.”
A way forward is possible
Offering concrete solutions to transition away from this dependency, the report calls for systemic shifts across policy, funding, and narratives towards agroecology and regenerative food systems through:
- Phasing out synthetic fertilizers and hazardous pesticides
- Redirecting fossil fuel and industrial agriculture subsidies toward agroecology—farming practices and systems that are healthier for people and the environment
- Strengthening laws and governance efforts to rebalance agriculture’s relationship with nature and restore accountability.
“The scourge of toxic pesticides is devastating millions of lives across the planet, while poisoning our land, food, air, and the water upon which life itself depends,” said Marcia Ishii, Senior Scientist, Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network. “But farmers, fishers, workers, Indigenous peoples, community leaders and activists around the world are demonstrating that a food system grounded in agroecology, food sovereignty, mutual aid, reciprocity, and respect is not only possible but is humanity’s best way forward.”
