Pesticide Information

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 . I would appreciate it.

What a shame! I missed all the buzz around the pesticides in wine story. Not only because I was somewhat distracted after a few glasses of Chateau la France, but mainly because I was on holiday. Pan Europe have had great success in the media recently after launching a new report claiming the presence of pesticide residues in wine. Looking at my RSS feeds this one bounced around Europe several times. Industry responded but it appears their response wasn’t half as media sexy (or can I say addictive?) as Pan’s. No change there then! If you missed this one, overviews of the story may be found here: Pan Europe,ECPA, EurActiv, Wine & Spirit.com, , DW-World.

EurActiv and ENDS Daily have reported on the recently published revised proposal for the new regulation governing the type of pesticides allowed on the market in Europe. The Commission has rejected nearly half of the amendments introduced by the Parliament during its first reading last October. The EurActiv article also links to useful background reading.

Elsewhere on the web, heated debates are taking place as to the official first day of Spring, historically the 20/21st March, however there is no question in the minds of the French activists MDRGF (Movement for Rights and Respect for Future Generations) who are organising their third year of ‘Week without pesticides’ in France today. Since its debut in 2006, this event has grown in popularity across France and this year is also supported by various European countries.