British farmer speaks to us about pesticides
Posted by Helen Dunnett on December 27, 2008 in European Regulation, Farming
Sarah Pettitt, a farmer based in Lincolnshire in the UK, who is also Vice Chairman of the Board for Horticulture & Potatoes at the National Farmers Union, spoke to us very passionately about her fears concerning the pending revisions to the European regulation governing pesticides (91/414). Hear what she had to say in the video below.
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Comments(0)Defra to appeal over Downs case
Posted by Wyn Grant on December 19, 2008 in Environment, Farming, Food & health
Defra is to appeal against the judgment of the High Court in the recent case on spraying brought by Georgina Downs. In a debate in the House of Lords earlier this week junior Defra minister Lord Hunt confirmed that Hilary Benn had been given leave to appeal. ‘It is not appropriate for me to go into the details of that appeal,’ he said. ‘But at the end of the day, we all want to see good practice and proportionate regulation.’
A Defra spokesman later said that the High Court’s decision would make it impossible to authorise pesticides for use in the UK. ‘This would have a very serious impact on farming and food production and would put the UK out of line with the rest of Europe.’ The spokesman added that the protection of the health of those who live, work or visit the countryside remained a top government priority.
Goergina Downs expressed her ‘absolute disgust’ at the appeal and accused the government of the ‘utmost complacency.’ ‘Heads should be rolling, following such a landmark High Court judgment, but instead it’s “business as usual” with the government’s relentless attempts to protect the [pesticides] industry as opposed to the health of its citizens.’
As I have tried to argue in earlier postings, any difficult public policy decision involves a balancing of considerations including food security. If fruit and vegetables were less readily available or more expensive, this would have health implications. As I also suggested in an earlier posting, even a non-lawyer could see that the judge was pushing the envelope of what is possible in a judicial review.
There are real public health considerations here, but they would be more effectively resolved through negotiation rather than an adversarial process.
Professor John Lucas on pest resistance
Posted by Helen Dunnett on December 18, 2008 in Environment
Professor John Lucas, Head of the Plant Pathology and Microbiology Department at Rothamsted Research in the UK, was recently in Brussels to hand in a petition to MEPs that was signed by 72 scientists and agriculturists. The petition warns that the loss of pesticides could lead to serious problems of resistance in key crops in Europe (see previous entry). He granted us a few minutes of his time, during which we asked him about pest resistance, innovation in pest resistance management, the pressures on certain crops, and whether science itself might actually be responsible for resistance in crops.
UK food industry representatives seek meeting with Gordon Brown
Posted by Helen Dunnett on October 03, 2008 in European Regulation, Food & health
This week Farmers Weekly Interactive reported that the UK food chain is seeking a meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister over the European Commission’s proposals for pesticide authorisations. The British Retail Consortium, Food and Drink Federation, Fresh Produce Consortium, as well as the NFU Crop Protection Association, British Crop Production Council, Country Land and Business Association and the Agriculture Industry Confederation have all signed the letter requesting the Prime Minister “urgently raise the need for an impact assessment with President Sarcozy and EU heads of state, for further discussion at the European Council level”.
The complete letter is available on Farmers Weekly Interactive.
Pesticides ban would hit sugar beet sector hard
Posted by Wyn Grant on September 05, 2008 in European Regulation, Farming
What is left of the sugar beet sector in the UK could be wiped out for good if the European Parliament’s plan for restructing the range of pesticides available to farmers makes it into law, argues the British Beet Research Organisation. The Commission’s proposals would have a relatively small impact. ‘By contrast, the parliament’s peoposals would wipe out the UK sugar industry, because it would be too costly to grow dense stands of healthy, weed-free plants without today’s seed treatments and insecticides, none of which would have been approved.’
Without seed treatments, farmers would have to revert so sowing large amounts of seed, then thinning the seedlings to leave a final strand of plants. This is a labour intensive operation and it was difficult enough to secure the necessary labour when it was last done before 1965, but the research organisation thinks it would be impossible now. Certainly other sectors of British agriculture such as fruit growing have been hard hit this summer because of labour shortages after new restrictions were placed on migrant labour.
The Parliament’s proposal would leave only three of the nine herbicides now used to control broadleaf weeds. Competition in the crucial first six weeks post-emergence would devastate yields. No insecticides would be approved under the Parliament’s plan, principally because of the perceived threat to bees, even though they seldom visit beet fields.
The BBRO estimates that gross margins would drop from today’s average of £648/ha to £537/ha under the Commission’s proposal and just under £215/ha under the Parliament’s proposals. Fixed costs on general cropping farms in eastern England, which is the principal area of sugar beet production, averaged £759/ha in 2006.
Even though sugar beet has agronomic benefits in a rotation, at these margins the UK sugar industry would virtually disappear. A certain volume of production is needed to keep refining plants open.
National Farmers Union vs. Soil Association
Posted by Helen Dunnett on July 25, 2008 in European Regulation, Farming
In a similar vein to what we’re trying to do here on pesticideinformation.eu i.e. present all sides of the story, BBC Radio Humberside recently interviewed spokespeople from both the UK NGO, The Soil Association, and the National Farmers Union, on the impending legislative proposals governing pesticides in the EU. Two well articluated but of course different takes on the issues and well worth a listen.
A farmer’s view on the proposed pesticides legislation 3
Posted by Helen Dunnett on July 14, 2008 in Environment, European Regulation, Farming
In this clip, Philip Huxtable speaks about Integrated Farm Management (IFM) on his farm. European farmers are increasingly adopting and developing IFM, which combines traditional farming methods with modern technology and products: ‘the best of both’. This approach combines techniques such as crop rotation to prevent the build-up of certain pests in one field, choosing varieties of crops which are more resistant to disease, crop sanitation, and biological controls i.e. promoting beneficial insects that eat target pests, and only using pesticides (chemical crop protection) as the last line of defence.
If you are interested in knowing more about Integrated Farm Management, we recommend this report by DEFRA, the UK government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
A farmer’s view on the proposed pesticides legislation 2
Posted by Helen Dunnett on July 10, 2008 in European Regulation, Farming
As promised last week, here’s some more footage from our visit to JSR Farms in East Yorkshire, where Philip Huxtable, who has run JSR Farms for over 30 years, spoke to us about the potential effects of the proposed revision of the European Directive governing pesticides (91/414).
In this clip, he speaks about the threat of septoria on wheat, and the family of fungicides he uses to treat it - triazoles. These are under threat from the proposed revision, and could potentially cost him 30-40% of his annual yield.
As also mentioned in our last entry, Mr Huxtable’s statements of course represent a farmer’s views. We would recommend that you listen to this report from BBC Humberside radio by Chris Arundel, who was also present at the event, which seeks to provide a more balanced view of the issues (Mr. Arundel interviewed Elliott Cannell of the Pesticide Action Network, an anti-pesticides NGO).