Subscribe to our “Our Food has Become Greener”
Mar30“Our Food has Become Greener”… is the promotional headline in a new Factsheet on pesticides published by DG Sanco (March 2009)
Having ‘eliminated’ 3/4 of the EU pesticide armoury the Commission appears intent on ensuring further reductions in Pesticide use and has introduced a move from scientific risk assessment to the use of hazard triggers. These triggers (e.g. carcinogens, mutagens, endocrine disruptors, substances toxic for reproduction or which are very persistent) will effectively act as Fixed Criteria and will not be risk assessed in the situation for use… a totally unscientific ‘guillotine’.
“There can now be no doubt that UK horticulture must act proactively and with utmost haste to initiate new research and development programmes to seek novel ‘alternative’ solutions to some of the gaps in pest, disease and weed control that are undoubtedly going to arise as the regulations are introduced across the European Union”
Dr Martin McPherson
“After reading this Eurocratic departmental marketing leaflet it’s clear to me there’s no wonder the wider consumer is confused and unnecessarily concerned about their food. At a time when much of the global economy is falling apart and demand for affordable food far exceeds the worlds current ability to supply, how can we ever hope to tackle the obscenity of obesity; the challenges of starvation and malnutrition; when Eurocrats vote for the recent unscientific hazard based plant protection legislation. This unscientific legislation, with it’s (almost defined) hazard triggers will result in fruit and vegetable production, which form the very life-blood of healthy eating in many cases, to become uneconomical and unviable to produce. The irony being that if the more affluent general population still want to eat a healthy lifestyle, produce will have to be flown in at great expense from the far corners of the world, out of reach from this new legislation, where there is poor production practice and significantly less food safety/hygiene controls.
In their promotional literature I notice plenty of reference to risk assessment, ‘provides assurances that the substances currently on the market are acceptable for human health and the environment’….’a comprehensive risk assessment and authorisation procedure for active substances’…. just goes to prove by their own admission the previous risk based scientific approach is correct!
How can literature with an irresponsible plant protection undertone from the European Department, who’s interest is supposed to be the general public- which by the way includes the promotion of a healthy eating lifestyle suggest such concerns about our world class food production.
Who needs enemies when growers and society have friends like these!”
Sarah Pettitt
