Pesticides – What Does Science Say?

Pesticides – What Does Science Say?

Program

Do you wash your apple before you eat it? The use of pesticides in agriculture and the consequences on the environment and human health are a subject of controversial discussions. The World Food System Center wants to contribute knowledge to the debate about the use of pesticides in food systems. We want to provide a platform for a science-based discussion and address questions relevant for a broad audience. Register for our event and send in a question on any of these four topics:• Health (both of consumers and workers in the field) and risk assessment• Environmental impacts• Various geographical perspectives (Switzerland, Uganda, Costa Rica)• Policy (incentives and regulations)The invited experts will evaluate the questions prior to the event. Selected questions will be answered from various perspectives during the informal salon discussion.

Speakers

Prof. Robert Finger holds the chair of Agricultural Economics and Policy at ETH Zurich. His research focuses on risk management in agriculture, evaluation and design of agricultural policies, sustainable farm-environment interactions, and agri-environmental measures.

Dr. Lothar Aicher received a doctorate in Biochemistry in 1997 from the University of Kaiserslautern and became a Swiss and Eurotox Registered Toxicologist in 1999. He has held various positions in marketing and business development in the agrochemicals sector. Lothar joined the Swiss Center for Applied Human Toxicology in April 2010 as a regulatory toxicologist.

Philipp Staudacher is a doctoral student at Eawag and contributes to an inter- and transdisciplinary research project on pesticide use in tropical regions. The aim of the project is to deepen the understanding of the environmental, health ,and regulatory dimensions of pesticide use in agriculture in low- and middle- income countries.