1. CHEMICAL COCKTAILS

• Nitrogen Fertilizers
  • Based on estimates, only around 50% of the global population could be sustained without reactive nitrogen fertilizer.
    (reactive nitrogen = every form of nitrogen other than the molecular)
  • Atmospheric N → ammonia (Haber-Bosch process)
  • Runs on fossil fuels and energy intensive (although there are electricity-driven technologies in the horizon, but this does not solve other problems related to usage)
  • https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-people-does-synthetic-fertilizer-feed

• Glyphosate
  • 1.2 dl is the estimated amount of glyphosate, that an adult living in the EU could have consumed between 2002 and 2025.
  • Source: calculations based on EU legislations and statistics

(calculations to be inserted here)

• DDT
  • 4.2% of measured EU-market food samples contain DDT, a pesticide that was banned in 1972 worldwide.
  • Source: Residues of Banned Pesticides in EU food, PAN Europe, 2020

• PFAS
  • 37% of EU-grown strawberries had forever chemical (PFAS) residues, thus being the no.1 fruit contaminated with PFAS.
  • Source: Toxic Harvest, The rise of forever pesticides in fruit and vegetables in Europe, 2024

• Cocktail effect
  • 26.4% of European fruit samples contain more than one type of pesticide, also known as a ‘pesticide cocktail’.
  • Source: The 2023 European Union report on pesticide residues in food, 2025