At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture, which we attended last week (see previous post below), we spoke to Neil Parish, a Member of the European Parliament, where he is Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

Please click on the video below to hear Mr Parish’s views on the reduction of pesticides available to farmers and the effect this might have on food supply, the shift from a risk to hazard-based assessment of products, and Week without Pesticides, the annual campaign originally launched by Citizen’s Action for Pesticides’ Alternatives.

We attended an event in Brussels yesterday entitled “The Importance of Science and Technology to the Future of European Agriculture and Food Production”, organised by the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium.

Part of the event consisted of an expert panel discussion focussing on the following question: “the regulatory and political environment for science and technology’s contribution to European agriculture”. In their introductory remarks, two of the panel speakers, Members of the European Parliamant Hiltrud Breyer (Greens, Germany) and Robert Sturdy(EPP-ED, United Kingdom), gave their views on the pending revision of Directive 91/414 governing pesticides. These may be seen in the videos below.

We shall be uploading more material from the event in the coming days.

The European Parliament recently voiced its concerns regarding rising food prices in the EU and developing countries at its plenary discussion in April 2008. I raised the point that we should have a closer look at our European legislation and whether it allows for an increase of agricultural productivity. We have numerous legislation restricting the use of fertilizers and pesticides leading to an increased burden on farmers to produce high quality products at an affordable price for everyone. I believe this is exactly what hinders an increase of productivity. I therefore propose we should reconsider what changes in this area are necessary whilst safeguarding high standards of protection of the consumer and the environment.

Dr. Horst Schnellhardt, MEP

This edit has been added on 2 June, to respond to requests to have this blog entry in French.

Dr. Horst Schnellhardt, MPE, sur la législation et la productivité agricole
Le Parlement Européen a récemment fait part de ses préoccupations concernant la hausse des prix des produits alimentaires au sein de l’Union européenne et des pays en voie de développement lors de sa session plénière d’avril 2008. J’ai moi-même soulevé que nous devrions examiner de plus près notre législation européenne afin de déterminer si elle permet une augmentation de la productivité agricole. Nous avons de multiples législations restreignant l’utilisation des engrais et des pesticides qui conduisent à une charge accrue pour les agriculteurs pour produire des produits de haute qualité à un prix abordable pour tous. Je crois que c’est exactement ce qui entrave toute augmentation de productivité. Je suggère dès lors de reconsidérer quels changements s’avèrent nécessaires dans cette matière tout en maintenant des standards élevés de protection du consommateur et de l’environnement.