Agrochemical contamination in Brazil seen as a crime of ecocide. Towards an ecocentric approach on pesticide regulation

Abstract

This paper starts from the most recent evidences about the global crisis in the Antropocene. Relying upon bibliographical and documentary sources, the focus is set on the main contradictions and barriers identified in the field of regulatory arrangements of pesticide’s use in Brazil. Moreover, the authors question why these substances, some of them already banished in countries that sustain their production, are currently consumed and exchanged as an important driver of the Brazilian development strategy. In this sense, the text presents a synthetic review of the debate involving the pesticide named Paraquat. The diffusion of this substance is seen as an impressive example of a global model of commodities exchange that foster at the same time ecologically disruption and the traditional Nord-South socioeconomic inequalities. Moreover, the text offers a review of some emergent approaches in the field of political ecology that are helping to deal with these anomalies in a new way: ecocide, ecocentrism, ecological justice and eco-legal order.