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!

The international news channel France 24 recently features two insightful debates in its program ‘Face-off’.

The first one, entitled ‘Organic Food: not so wholesome?’, picks up on an ongoing furore around the now famous Food Standards Agency (FSA) report on organic (see our last two posts). The debate includes some interesting comments by Olivier Andrault from the Consumer Association UFC-Que Choisir and Diego Garcia from L’Agence Bio.

The second debate - ‘Toxic algae: the new silent killer?’ – features a conversation with Antoine Foucher, Campaign Director at Greenpeace International, and Jean-Charles Bocquet, General Manager at the French Crop Protection Association, on toxic algae and beach pollution.

Highly recommended!

We’ve put together some footage from an event last month where we spoke to three French farmers with varying opinions on the use of pesticides in farming: one believes they are essential, another states that he does not need pesticides at all, while a third, who uses Integrated Pest Management techniques on his farm, comes somewhere in between. Interesting viewing.

The Salon de l’Agriculture in Paris is a massive event. Spread across several halls, you’ll find literally anything and everything to do with agriculture. The French public love this annual exhibition too with thousands of families attending each day.

PI team visited the fruit and vegetable hall to find out what the French public thought of pesticides. It wasn’t easy to get them on camera I can tell you, but we managed to get a few willing volunteers to talk about their view of pesticides.

One clear message from the video, when it comes to pesticide facts, there’s a lot of question marks and ‘I don’t knows’.

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.