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EU pesticide rules would slash food production in UK
EUROPEAN proposals for pesticide control would outlaw four fifths of the chemicals used by UK farmers and cut crop yields by between a quarter and a half, says a body representing growers, food manufacturers and government advisers.
The British Crop Production Council published its disaster warning yesterday in an attempt to shock Ministers and Euro-MPs into intervening before a proposed rewriting of the European Commission rules on plant protection products takes effect towards the end of next year.
The proposals have been presented by the new Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Androulla Vasilou, from Cyprus, who has said she was advised they would not have much impact on agriculture.
A spokesman said last night: "It is a typical European story. These proposals have been under discussion for years. Everyone assumes the dafter elements will be talked out but they disappear into various committees, which are lobbied by all sorts of people, and get worse. And by the time they come back, we are running out of time. The proposals now on the table are due for implementation in late 2009 but we saw them not much more than a month ago."
The BCPC immediately commissioned an impact assessment which was discussed at a meeting of its Food Chain Forum.
The report from that says: "Yields will be decimated, many crops will become uneconomical to produce and food quality will be threatened if the legislation becomes law.
"The proposals could lead to the removal of 85 per cent of agrochemical products currently approved for use in the UK. They would create food shortages, soaring prices and a reliance on imported produce."
The substances on Ms Vasilou's hit list include pyrethroid insecticides and a family called triazoles, which are important in the control of wheat fungus.
The agricultural consultancy ADAS, a privatised government agency which still advises Defra, worked with the York-based Pesticide Safety Directorate to assess the impact of making them and the rest of Ms Vasilou's hit-list unavailable and said the lowest impact would be a 25 per cent drop in crop production in the UK; it could be as much as 53 per cent.
New rules for European crops would imply the need to ban imports grown to different rules elsewhere – meaning huge jumps in prices.
ADAS representative James Clarke told the forum that brassicas would become uneconomical to grow; wheat prices would have to rise between 30 per cent and 120 per cent; and potatoes 49 -100 per cent.
The BCPC says the chemicals are being singled out because they can be dangerous rather than because they actually do damage. Colin Ruscoe, chairman of the BCPC's executive arm, commented last night: "Petrol is dangerous. We are calling for a proper assessment of risk."
Defra Secretary of State Hilary Benn has been briefed on the issue. One of his officials said last night: "We will be pressing the EU Commission to take a proportionate approach."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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