Sustainable agriculture should tend to reduce or stop the use of pesticides. However, this absence of chemical control may affect harvest quality by leading to an increase of fungal toxins, named mycotoxins, due to the development of pathogenic fungi in maize, for instance. Agronomists Reboud et al. studied mycotoxin levels in 29 maize fields over 4 years in France. They found mycotoxins levels twice higher in untreated fields, of cumulated 3.7 mg/Kg on average, versus pesticide-treated fields, of 1.9 mg/Kg. However, mycotoxins levels in untreated fields were still about 50% lower than the acceptable legal level for edible maize but with reduced safety margin.
