The Global Alliance for the Future of Food today released a new report revealing a comprehensive analysis of the many crises generated by the use of fossil fuel-derived synthetic fertilizers and pesticides throughout agriculture and food production around the world.
“Our latest report presents a sobering truth: the multitude of impacts from the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides locks our food systems into a spiralling dependency on fossil fuels,” said Anna Lappé,
Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food. “The analysis we share exposes the consequences of these impacts—from environmental degradation to chronic disease and biodiversity loss—and sets out solutions to help support a model of food production that centres people and the planet.”
An over-reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
Produced with contributions from 29 experts in food production, human health, and the environment, the report, “Toxic Dependency: How Agrochemicals Lock In Food System Vulnerability,” finds that the harms of agrochemical-dependent food systems—which include environmental degradation, chronic disease, eroded farmer livelihoods, and rising food prices from global shocks—are entrenched and reinforced through policies and funding streams driven by the fossil-fuel industry and its allies.
The report highlights the extreme reliance on synthetic inputs and how the current global food system includes financial support for the status quo, including:
- In 2023, total pesticide use reached 3.7 million metric tonnes of chemicals. The result is that nearly two-thirds of all agricultural land worldwide is at risk of pesticide pollution from more than one active ingredient.
- More than half the world’s industrial-scale monocultures dependent on agrochemicals are grown for animal feed or biofuels, not human consumption.
- Agrochemical pesticide exposure is linked to cancers, neurological disorders, and reproductive harm, along with increased incidents of self-harm, where regulations are weak.
- Between 2013 and 2018, support for current industrial agricultural production methods averaged almost USD 540 billion per year. These subsidies can be repurposed to fund more sustainable agriculture systems.
- Fossil fuel subsidies further skew the playing field: in 2024, fossil fuel subsidies reached USD 7 trillion, keeping the cost of synthetic fertilizer production artificially low.
A confluence of crises reveals growing vulnerabilities
With fossil fuel production and transport impacted by conflicts in the Middle East, the World Food Programme has warned that 45 million people could be pushed into food insecurity due to secondary impacts of the conflicts. At the same time, the “Super El Niño” weather system that is rapidly intensifying could render an additional 49 million people food insecure.
The report’s authors assert that the current confluence of crises reveals the growing vulnerabilities of fossil-fuel-dependent food production. They call for a systemic shift to redirect subsidies into climate adaptation programs that eschew fossil-fuel-derived inputs.
“Climate shocks, geopolitical tensions, and fertilizer disruptions keep driving up grocery bills while squeezing farmers,” said Nicole Pita, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). “But we can’t fix volatile food prices until we break food’s dependence on fossil fuels and toxic agrochemicals.”
A way forward is possible
Offering concrete solutions to transition away from this dependency, the report calls for systemic shifts across policy, funding, and narratives towards agroecology and regenerative food systems through:
- Phasing out synthetic fertilizers and hazardous pesticides
- Redirecting fossil fuel and industrial agriculture subsidies toward agroecology—farming practices and systems that are healthier for people and the environment
- Strengthening laws and governance efforts to rebalance agriculture’s relationship with nature and restore accountability.
“The scourge of toxic pesticides is devastating millions of lives across the planet, while poisoning our land, food, air, and the water upon which life itself depends,” said Marcia Ishii, Senior Scientist, Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network. “But farmers, fishers, workers, Indigenous peoples, community leaders and activists around the world are demonstrating that a food system grounded in agroecology, food sovereignty, mutual aid, reciprocity, and respect is not only possible but is humanity’s best way forward.”
Additional examples of transitions happening today:
While synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use has increased exponentially over the past half-century—particularly in a handful of countries—agroecological and regenerative systems have also expanded. They are proving viable and successful at scale. Inspiring examples include:
- Mali: Participatory research found that locally adapted maize–cowpea intercropping and livestock integration in the south of the country increased gross farm margins by 20–26% without compromising household food self-sufficiency.
- The Sahel Region: Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration has supported over 600,000 smallholder farming households, covering nearly one million hectares of land across eight countries in Africa’s Sahel region to adopt and refine diverse, appropriate, and profitable regreening practices, resulting in millet yield increases of over 100% with and approximately 5 million hectares of once degraded farmland now supporting medium to high densities of tree cover.
- Benin: An organic cotton initiative has reached more than 9,000 smallholders. The transition increased farm profitability by 65%, produced 75% higher mean soil organic carbon than conventional fields and increased soil biological activity and soil microorganisms, while eliminating acute pesticide poisonings.
- Andhra Pradesh, India: One of the most climate-change-vulnerable states in India, the government has worked with more than 1.7 million farmers to transition their operations away from synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. After four years, rice farmers realized an estimated 13% increase in yield and 57% increase in net income. The entire agriculture sector realised a reduction in water use of up to 50%.
- Zimbabwe: The Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Community Trust has trained 15,000 farmers in agroforestry, reforested 2,500 hectares, and established a local seed system featuring 187 traditional crop varieties.
- Niger: Women farmers are scaling the use of sanitized waste and innovative fertilizer replacements that are available locally to reduce dependence on costly synthetic fertilizers while strengthening resilience in one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions.
- The Andes: farming communities are preserving crop diversity and local seed systems that help farmers adapt to increasingly volatile growing conditions.
