French activists MDRGF (Movement for Rights and Respect for Future Generations) are preparing for their annual ‘Week without pesticides’ (20th-30th March). Since its debut in 2006, this event has seen some growth in popularity across France and a handful of other European countries.

The ‘Week without pesticides’ aims to educate the public on health and environmental risks of pesticide use, and prove that viable alternatives to chemical treatments exist. You can follow the activities of the ‘Week without pesticides’ at their campaign website.

Providing information to the general public on the realities of modern agriculture is an important and challenging task (there are indications that the general public has limited knowledge of modern agriculture). Without all of the information, how are we expected to make informed decisions – the right decisions?

One reality is that most weeks are ‘without pesticides’. Pesticides are used only when they are needed to fight pests and diseases – they are not applied on a daily basis or without good cause. The impact of reducing pesticide use to zero would be dramatic – Europe would suffer an approximate loss of 50% of food crop from pests and diseases without the intervention of pesticides. CropLife America state that up to 40% of the world’s potential crop production is already lost annually because of the effects of weeds, pests and disease – these crop losses would be doubled if existing pesticide use was abandoned. Pesticides are even used in organic agriculture, so the bio sector would also suffer considerably.

CropLife America estimate that crop protection products preserve upwards of $45 billion of produce worldwide each year. Failure to protect our crops would have enormous implications on the global economy, and would seriously impact on food security. Earth will be home to an estimated 9 billion people (around 2 billion more than today) by the year 2050. We are already struggling to feed 7 billion – can we feed 9 billion without effective crop protection measures? The FAO estimates that, even with improved food distribution, food production will need to increase 70% by 2050 to cope with a 40% increase in world population.

European agriculture must find a sustainable way to feed a growing population, adapt to climate change, limit greenhouse gas emissions, minimise impact on the natural environment, continue to operate within strict European guidelines, and produce food which is affordable.

Faced with the challenge of improving agricultural production, modern agriculture looks to technology for sustainable solutions. One solution is maximising food production on the existing agricultural land-base – this is considered beneficial as it limits expansion of the agricultural footprint, reducing the need for deforestation and the destruction of natural habitats. It is pesticides that allow us to maximise yield and avoid the geographic expansion of agricultural land.

If we want to produce more food on the existing agricultural land-base and ensure food remains affordable, it seems pesticides will have an important role to play – if this is indeed the case, focus should continue to be on ensuring their safe and sustainable use.

Food production, food cost, food security, health and the environment (to name a few) are all influenced by crop protection – they are themes which concern all of us. The ‘Week without pesticides’ is an opportunity to join the debate on these important issues – issues plural, because it’s not just about crop protection, it’s not that easy.

MDRGF and WWF France have recruited singing garden gnomes (’Les Pestes Acides‘) as part of their ‘Week without pesticides’ information campaign. Innovation may have overtaken information in this video, but I do see good Eurovision Song Contest potential - enjoy!

At the recent Forum for the Future of Agriculture (see previous posts below), we spoke to Matthias Meissner of theWWF in Berlin.

We asked him for his views on balancing food and environmental security. He sees it as imperative, but that it should be done by encouraging capacity for farming in the developing world, rather than insisting on increasing productivity, say via the use of technology. View the full interview below.

At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture, organised jointly by Syngenta and the European Landowners’ Organization(ELO) last week, we spoke to Alexander Sarris, Director in the Commodities and Trade Division at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

He gave us some insights into the role of technology in agriculture, the productivity gap that exists in the developing world, and how imperative it is that this gap be diminished (a process which may, in his view, involve the reduction Europe’s role as a supplier of food).

UPDATE: Blogactiv were also present at the event and spoke to Mr Sarris (click below). View all of Blogactiv’s interviews from the event by clicking here

FFA 2009: Alexander Sarris

At the recent Forum for the Future of Agriculture (see previous posts below), we asked Willem-Jan Laan, Director of Global External affairs at Unilever for his views on the future of agriculture and the role of technology within it. View his comments in the video below.

We have another interview from the Forum for the Future of Agriculture for you (see previous posts below), this time with Hervé Morize, Chairman of the Société des Agriculteurs de France, or the French association of farmers.

Mr Morize dispels the myth that productivity and protection of the environment can not go hand in hand, using the example of seed production, and proceeds to give his views on the future of European agriculture more broadly. Click below to view the interview.

At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture (see previous posts below) we spoke to Luca Montaranella, who is with theLand Management and Natural Hazards Unit at the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES). The IES is part of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Comission, its role being to provide scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of European Union policies.

In this clip, Mr Montarenella expressed his doubt over claims made at the Forum that there was plenty more land available for cultivation of crops around the world, and spoke of his institutes’s collaboration with EFSA in an attempt to make informed science-based decisions on matters such as pesticides regulation.

Asked about their views on the revision of current legislation governing pesticides in Europe, the scientists who signed the Declaration of Ljubljana last week, had the following to say:

To view highlights from other interviews, scroll down this page to view other blog entries, or to view the full interviews visit our YouTube.com channel.

Last night, I attended a press conference following a scientists’ workshop on the impact of the proposed revision of the EU’s pesticide legislation (Directive 91/414). Ian Denholm from the Rothamsted Research institute, presenting the workshop’s conclusions, pleaded to EU legislators to involve scientists in a thorough risk-based assessment of the proposed legislation, which he said has so far not been the case. View our video clip below to hear Ian’s remarks.

Other interviews from the event are being posted to our YouTube.com channel in the coming days.

Click here to read the scientists’ “Declaration of Ljubljana” in full or here to read a press release on the event from the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia.

European Landowners (ELO) joined forces with Syngenta last week (27 March) to host a forum on the future of European agriculture. With a great programme, not surprisingly the event was well attended by a diverse group of stakeholders. I was there too and for the first time with a video camera, trying to capture various viewpoints on the future of pesticides in European agriculture. I cornered a few brave people willing to talk to me however I will admit the video is fairly one-sided. I hadn’t anticipated it being quite so difficult to spot more of the right people! Anyway please accept my apologises and if you want to add your own insight on the event or on these interviews, either add a comment to this blog entry or get in contact with me. I would appreciate it.