According to data from the Union of Agrochemical Industries (Sindag), 986,500 tons of pesticides were consumed in 2008 (the first year Brazil attained its ranking as the world's largest consumer of pesticides) and more than a million tons in 2009 (equivalent to 5.2 kg of agrochemical products per Brazilian per year). Although Sindag itself and other agribusiness sources issued statements commemorating these figures, exalting the use of agro-chemicals as 'the application of technology', little by little the national press began to publish news stories connecting the abuse of pesticides to food contamination, environmental damage and health issues. Undoubtedly because of the negative impact of these media reports, this year Sindag published no data on the volume of pesticides sold in 2010: it merely reported that the value of the sales achieved over the period was US$ 7.2 billions. It did, however, emphasise that this value represented a 9% increase over the previous year.
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