The debate on the use of pesticides in South Tyrol: complaint (later withdrawn) by the provincial councilor against those who denounced the health risks

Pesticides of discord. On the one hand, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano that defends its use in agriculture, on the other hand environmentalists who have reported the use massive, particularly in the cultivation of me. A challenge should have been staged in the Court, in which the freedom of criticism and expression was at stake, after the provincial councilor in 2017 Arnold schuler had filed a lawsuit for defamation. But in the period prior to the first hearing, after some extrajudicial talks, the public institution and the environmentalists reopened the dialogue. “We have decided to confront each other in a respectful and constructive ”, the Province informs in a note, specifying that it has the complaint withdrawn. “We didn’t want to ask for damages, we don’t want to ruin anyone, but we want to treat each other with respect. We owe it to our little ones farms run by a family. We strongly demand this respect, but we are happy to be open to an objective discussion, ”the statement read.

A setback perhaps also dictated by concern that the clamor raised by the trial, not only in Italy, but also in Germany and in Austriawould have created again more damage to South Tyrol and the image of its agriculture. For years, environmentalists have clashed with farmers. tar appeals and to the Council of State, civil cases and proceedings in the Court of Accounts. They had been sued before the judges both Karl Bär, a reference for agriculture of the institute of environment of Munich, that the Austrian writer Alexander Schiebel, author of the book “The miracle of Mals“(“The miracle of Mals”) Which was also followed by a documentary.

Malles, a municipality ofUpper Venosta Valley, is famous for producing me. The lawsuit stigmatized some sentences and slogan used repeatedly to inform i serious dangers for the health that the population would run by fumigating the fields and plants with i pesticides, which allow a better interpretation of collected and therefore higher turnover. In a word, it would be a way of commodification public health. On the contrary, the Province I had withheld the phrases defamatory me harmful the image of South Tyrol.

Lawyer Nicola Canestrini, the defender of the two defendants had explained. “The need to defend the right to expression and criticism is at stake. L ‘public opinion South Tyrol reacted to a criticism not by trying to counter and incorporate the criticism itself, making it a subject of public debate, but simply by wanting it. Mute and this is the problem causing this process democracy“. Commissioner Schuler’s lawsuit had also affected the board of the institute for the environment in Munich and Jakob radloff, who is the publisher of the accused book. For these last processes, the Public Ministry requested the dismissal, but the commissioner objected.

The Association of Physicians for the Environment also intervened on the issue IT IS, which condemns the use of legal action to silence those who raise serious environmental problems involving people’s health. Roberto romizi, President of ISDE Italia, and Paolo Bortolotti, President of ISDE Trentino Alto Adige, stated: “As doctors we have always been very attentive when informing i risks related to the use of pesticides, now confirmed by a considerable amount of scientific studies. The risks are documented, not just for acute exposure (poisonings), but also by small and repeated doses over time (chronic exposure) and cause damage to the health not only of those who manipulate, spread or live near them in the territories where they are used, but also of the entire population. In particular, the most fragile components: pregnant women, children me Old people“They are molecules” very often persistent, toxic even in very low doses and now present in air, water, soil, food and in our own body, with the possibility of transmission to offspring through epigenetic damage. “