The Lynchpin of Industrial Ag (PANNA, The Pesticide Problem, Pesticides:The Big Picture) 'Pesticides are the lynchpin of an unsustainable industrial agriculture system. This model of farming is inefficient and does not represent the cutting edge of modern farming. In 1940, we produced 2.3 food calories for every fossil fuel calorie used. By industrializing our food and farming systems, we now get a single food calorie for every 10 fossil fuel calories used — a 23-fold reduction in efficiency.'
Animal Fodder – A Driver of the Global Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) Industry (Beyond Pesticides, April 30, 2020) Chemical-intensive farming of crops for animal fodder powers the global market for highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), according to data analyzed by Unearthed, and the Swiss NGO Public Eye. Animal fodder production not only intensifies global pollution, but it also increases pesticide exposure and degrades human, animal, and environmental health. This data analysis supports advocates advancing pesticide policies to eliminate HHPs by identifying which toxic chemicals lead global pesticide sales. Unearthed and Public Eye investigated over $23 billion in global pesticide market sales to determine the proportion of pesticides considered highly hazardous by the Pesticide Action Network’s (PAN) International 2019 list of HHPs. HHP hazard categories include acutely toxic, chronic health hazards, environmental hazards, and toxic to bees. Chemical-intensive farming contributes to HHP global market sales as farmers apply various herbicides and insecticides to many staple fodder crops. International sales of HHPs pose a serious global health risk as 18 out of 19 analyzed HHPs are available in the U.S. pesticide market for use.'
Estimated Annual Agricultural Pesticide Use in the US
Pesticide Use Maps. You can sarch per chemical and year. Would that we had something like that in Canada!
In the U.S. and the world, pesticide use is up (PANNA, 2 August 2018) "In the U.S., nearly $14 billion was spent on all pesticides at the user level in 2012. Agricultural sector pesticide usage accounted for nearly 90% of the total pesticide usage between 2005-2012." includes chart. What the numbers tell us
- 'In the U.S., agricultural pesticide expenditures by users totaled over $9 billion in 2012, accounting for 66% of the pesticide market.'
- 'Farmers are spending more on pesticides. Average pesticide expenditures in the U.S. were 4.2% in 2007 and 5% in 2012 of total farm expenditures.'
- Organophosphate (OP) insecticide use is still decreasing' (likely replaced with worse neonicotinoids)
- 'World pesticide usage was nearly 6 billion pounds in 2011 and 2012. U.S. pesticide usage was over 1.1 billion pounds in 2011 and 2012'.
- 'Agricultural pesticide use is up — mainly herbicides... Herbicides accounted for nearly half of total U.S. pesticide usage in 2011, and nearly 60% of usage in 2012.'​
Saskatchewan 2026 GUIDE TO CROP PROTECTION lists all the pesticide formulations allowed for sale in Saskatchewan and their uses. Be warned, it is an extensive list! A new guide is produced every year. Also from the Government of Saskatchewan
DOC:265; Pest Control Products Sales Report for 2024 (PMRA, Government of Canada) .
There were 7798 products registered with Health Canada for use in Canada in the 2024 calendar year. All technical grade active ingredient and manufacturing concentrate product information wasexcluded from calculation as the quantity is reported in the end-use products. Also, products where the data could not be converted to kg a.i., due to the reported units of measure, were excluded from calculation. Of the remaining 2775 products reported as sold, the overall pesticide sales in Canada in 2024 were 144 301 218 kg a.i., which is a 1% increase from the 142 829 854 kg a.i. sold in 2023 (Figure 1). Pesticide sales have been steadily increasing over the last 5 years. Changes in overall pesticide sales is driven by changes in agricultural herbicide sales. 29 more products and 11,415,784 kg than in 2021, Appendix I Ranking of all active ingredients sold in Canada in 2024on p. 18, and
Appendix II Chemical groups and active ingredients – 2024 on p. 33.. SNAP Comment: Several very toxic product are included in the top 10 ingredients for the non-commercial sector such as creosote, Glutaraldehyde, and Arsenic acid. They are all antimicrobials including the #1 chlorine. What you do not find in this report is the sales by province. Most provinces keep track of their pesticide sales, but not Saskatchewan. In fact, after trying to keep track for 3 years, SK stopped because they thought it would be in this annual Canadian report. Sorry, it refuses to link. You will have to google the title.
Pest Control Products Sales Report for 2021 (PMRA, Government of Canada) There were 7753 products registered with the PMRA for use in Canada in the 2021calendar year.. All technical grade active ingredient and manufacturing concentrate product information was excluded from calculation as the quantity is reported in the end-use products. Also, products where the data could not be converted to kg a.i., due to the reported units of measure, were excluded from calculation. Of the remaining 2746 products reported as sold, the overall pesticide sales in Canada in 2021 were 132 885 434 kg a.i., which is an 5.1% increase from the 126 439 815 kg a.i. sold in 2020 (Figure 1).This report includes sales information by sector and by product type, as well as 2 appendices: Appendix I Ranking of all active ingredients sold in Canada in 2021.(p 18) and Appendix II Chemical groups and active ingredients – 2020 ( p.32)
New report reveals dramatic increase in overuse of toxic pesticides in Canada (Ecojustice, 8 January 2025)  A new report from Ecojustice reveals that pesticide sales in Canada increased by a staggering 47 per cent between 2011 and 2021. These dramatic increases in sales lead to higher and higher exposures for people in Canada and their environment. The report calls on the Canadian government to take urgent steps to address its broken regulatory system and identify pesticides reduction as a clear policy goal to reach its biodiversity commitments and better protect the health of people in Canada. Canada has become the fifth largest pesticide user in the world, despite having a colder climate than many other countries where pests are reduced in the winter. In 2005, 26 million kilograms of pesticides were estimated to be sold in Canada. Since then, annual pesticide sales have skyrocketed fivefold to more than 130 million kilograms. The report identifies steps the Canadian government must take to reach our commitment of reducing the risk of pesticides by at least 50 per cent by 2030, and align itself with international best practices to better protect people and the environment. This includes:
- Establishing a clear long-term goal to eliminate the use of toxic pesticides. 
- Realizing easy reductions in the short-term by eliminating certain high-risk, high-volume and low benefit practices such as forestry and cosmetic uses.
- Increasing supports to farmers to shift towards alternative pest management strategies.
- Significantly increasing transparency and weeding out undue and harmful industry influence in decision-making on harmful pesticides.
Tackling the Environmental Challenges of Rising Pesticide Use in Canada By Dr Christy Morrissey (University of SK), UNBC-NRESI Colloquium Series, 14 October, 2022) (University of Northern British Columbia colloquium series) Great one hour video presentation by Dr Morrissey. Worth watching. Lots of graphs with information new to me: like
- the area treated (Canadian Census of Agriculture) maps for herbicide, fungicide and insecticide. Prairies saw a 58% increase in herbicides, 50% (conservative estimate) insecticides and 412% more fungicides. Also increase in BC, S. ON and everywhere in Canada. (@6 min 40). According to her data, SK uses 80% of all Canadian pesticides.
- Landscape simplification drives higher pesticide use, especially insecticides.
- risk of wetland contamination very high in most of areas of Prairies because of seed treatment, which is also the main reason for increased pesticide use.
- Fungicides in seed treatment are used to potentiate the insecticide, not for disease prevention.
- widespread wetlands contamination in Saskatchewan. Most pesticides above chronic toxicity levels are neonicotinoids and their replacement diamides used in seed treatment.
- SK study relating increased pesticide residues in wetlands with reduced insect diversity and numbers.
- it takes only 15 minutes for Red-winged Blackbird to feel really sick from eating neonicotinoid treated seeds and quit eating (equivalent to 4 canola seeds). so whether it survives or not, depends on how much it ate.There is a razor-thin margin between losing body mass and dying.
More recent Annual Pesticide Sales Reports for 2009, 2010, 2011 more recent reports can be obtained by request to the PMRA.
Use of fertilizer and pesticides by Canadians (Statistics Canada) Table with use every 2 years from 2013. In the box under geography, you can get stats per province.
Canadian pesticide use of forestry Forest area treated with herbicides and insecticides (National Forestry Database) Saskatchewan, Yukon,North-west Territories and Quebec are not currently using herbicides in forestry. 8 herbicides listed on the table, but glyphosate is the main herbicide used. Bt is the main insecticide used on forests lately (table goes up to 2018) in New Brunswick, Quebec and British Columbia. see also (bottom of page says 2020): : WHICH HERBICIDES ARE USED IN FOREST VEGETATION MANAGEMENT? Category: Vegetation Management
Pest Control Products Sales 2016 (PMRA)
Pest Control Products Sales Report for 2011 (Government of Canada) French and English versions. However, the general trend has shown a small (3%) increase in the overall sales of pesticides in Canada (from 87 522 435 kg a.i. in 2008 to 90 324 969 kg a.i. in 2011). a.i. stands fo active ingredient. The number one pesticide used is glyphosate, as it was in the Saskatchewan sale's figures 2001-2003. 'Overall, 68.7% of pesticide sales in Canada were Agricultural sector products (see Figure 2), whereas 26.7% of pesticide sales were Non-Agricultural sector products and 4.6% were Domestic sector products. Corn gluten is one of the top ten domestic herbicide product and is included in 'sales of biopesticides' are '6.8% of pesticide sales overall'. Still no brekdown by province. With these numbers 3% is a huge quantity: an increase of 2,704,749.07 kg
The first Canadian Pesticide Sales Report for the year 2007-8 was released by the PMRA in June 2012. French report
- The number of registrants reporting increased from 61% ( 2007) to 70% (2008).
- Not all products reported could be used in the calculations. Of the remaining 2105 products, the overall pesticide sales in Canada for 2008 were 87 522 435 kg a.i.(active ingredient).
- The top ten active ingredients made up 61 836 154 kg a.i.or 71% of the total (Table 3).
- 4.4 % sales were of Domestic sector products
- no provincial data in the report.
- Further inquiry on provincial sales data indicates that provincial sales data are proprietory and therefore secret. This is ludicrous in view that at least Quebec, Ontario and Alberta make their pesticide sales data public, and I had no toruble obtaining them from SK fro 2001-03.
Neonicotinoid pesticides in African agriculture: What do we know and what should be the focus for future research? (by Ochuko Felix Orikpete et al, Chemosphere, Volume 372, March 2025, 144057) NEO-P = nenicotinoid pesticides
• Imidacloprid, acetamiprid, and thiamethoxam are the most reported NEO-P.
• 92–100% human urine samples collected in Ghana and Cameroon contained at least one NEO-P.
• No study on NEO-P-pollinator interactions has been reported in 81.5% African countries.
• Re-evaluation of current regulatory practices and adoption of sustainable strategies is vital.
NEO-P have been reported in honey, water, vegetables, fruits, and staple foods in most countries
