FOOD 2050

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.

When I attended the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee of the European Parliament with colleagues on Monday to give evidence the question of an EU-wide impact assessment of the 91/414 revisions was again raised.  The Commission response was that they had undertaken an impact assessment in 2006.   However, this impact assessment is widely considered to have been insufficient.

We recently had the opportunity to talk to Richard Davis, Director of Approvals, from the UK’s Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) just a few days before the Directorate issued a revised impact assessment on the proposed revisions to existing pesticide legislation (Directive 91/414/EEC). PSD received a fair amount of criticism for its first report so we asked why.

This week a pesticide-resistance petition, signed by 72 scientists and agriculturists, was presented to the European Parliament. The scientists are concerned that revisions to the existing European pesticide legislation which includes reducing the number of pesticides on the market could lead to pests developing resistances to remaining products. The scientists say that fewer active ingredients will mean pests regularly treated with a single product type are more likely to develop a resistance.