Brazilian Senate approves bill of Pesticide is named The Safer Food Law

Source: Merieux Nutrisciences

After more than 20 years under analysis by the National Congress, the Bill (PL 1459/2022) that modernizes the approval of new molecules to combat pests and diseases in the Brazilian tropical climate was approved, this Monday (19), at the Senate Agriculture Committee (CRA).  The text will now be forwarded for urgent consideration in the House Plenary.

During the period of analysis of the proposal in the Senate, public hearings were held on the subject with the participation of universities, scientists, doctors, representatives of federal agencies and national and international regulators, society and entities of the national productive sector.

The debate around a new regulation (Safer Food Law) is almost always guided by the same doubts and controversies that are fed daily with false information and little knowledge of the facts.  Part of the arguments that discredit food production in the country are routinely denied by the Agricultural Parliamentary Front (FPA) and by the productive sector, with official data.

Brazil promotes a thorough and transparent evaluation of pesticide evaluation procedures.  In addition, Anvisa performs the toxicological assessment for human health, Ibama issues an opinion with the conclusions of environmental risks and the Ministry of Agriculture (Mapa) evaluates the agronomic efficiency of the product.  Once approved by the three bodies, Mapa issues the approval record.

What the Safer Food Law brings is nothing more than the improvement and modernization of what we have today, in addition to making Brazil equal to the largest agricultural powers in the world, with more scientific rigor and less bureaucracy in procedures.

Among other points, the proposal also provides for a more complete analysis and takes into account all the risks involved to health and the environment, including adding criteria regarding people's exposure to these products, as is done in countries with agriculture, similar to the Brazilian one, such as Australia and the United States.

Today, processes are not integrated and computerized, which changes with the new legislation.  The modernization of the law will maintain all current powers, but will integrate and computerize the analysis and registration system.

In defence of the Commission's arguments, the bill's rapporteur Senator Acir Gurgacz (PDT-RO) highlighted that the approval of the Bill, in addition to placing Brazil on the same level as European countries and also the United States in terms of products, "will help in the production of cheaper food and in the continuous generation of jobs and income".

The senator explains that the text leads to the guarantee of health, safety and improved sustainability.  ″To modernize pesticides is to reduce doses and reduce costs, which will guarantee cheaper food on the Brazilian table″.  The parliamentarian recalled that, with the new law, the Ministry of Agriculture will assume the coordination of the process, without removing from Ibama and Anvisa the roles of technical evaluators of the products.

CRA's eventual president, Senator Zequinha Marinho (PL-PA) pointed out that the commission held three public hearings to work on the issue and that the matter should also be voted on in the House Plenary.  ″The pesticide law was debated for several years in parliament and we arrived at a very responsible text.  Modernization is necessary to allow the use of more modern and less toxic products.  In addition to adapting our legislation to international standards and speeding up the product analysis and approval process.