Pesticide Information

At the event we recently attended in southern Spain (see entries below), we asked two journalists, one from the trade press publication, Editorial Agricola Española, and the other from the press agency, EFE, how the issue of the revision of the European pesticides regulation, Directive 91/414, was being dealt with by the Spanish press.

At the European Voice event we recently attended (see our previous entry) we had a short chat with Mr Otmar Weingarten, who is Managing Director of the the Verband Deutscher Hopfenpflanzer, the Association of German Hop Growers. Mr Weingarten spoke about: the yield and quality reductions that German hop growers (who account for a third of global production) might face if the revision of the current pesticides regulation, Directive 91/414, is passed; the grave threat posed by the hop aphid on yields in Germany; and the viability of organic methods.

For those readers who don’t regularly check out the posts by other bloggers that prop up in our Netvibes Universe, here’s a sample from the last month or so that might be of interest.

International Policy Network, a UK think-tank, issued a statement today on their assessment of the ongoing reform of European pesticide legislation, Directive 91/414. Professor Sir Colin Berry, Emeritus Professor of Pathology at Queen Mary College, University of London, and former UK government scientist, criticised the proposed legislation saying: “The costs of implementing this legislation will be high – crop yields will fall, food prices will rise, more land will have to be farmed and fewer habitats conserved. But it is hard to imagine what the benefits will be.” He goes on to say that “if the same (hazard-based) principle were applied to the wider world, this would lead us to ban anything from bleach to coffee – even water.”