Here’s what’s wrong with the world today.
The EU (actually the EU Parliament and the MEP’s) voted to ban 20 types of pesticides, or pesticide ingredients from being used by EU farmers in agriculture. The Commission welcomed this as being a good way to start the new year with a regulation that promotes health and the environment. However, if you read most of the news on this, the most pressing issue is raised by farmers that are against this measure (mostly British). They say that this will make agriculture more expensive, push prices higher for the consumer and might even force some farmers into unemployment.
Now, really. Think about it for a moment. How can it be that banning the use of pesticides that are proven to cause cancer and damage to hormones be a bad thing?! Even the Greens, and Greenpeace says that this is not enough, that this 20 are only a minority of the up to 400 dangerous chemicals used to grow food in Europe and that are still used today and end up at our table every day!
And yet, the spin on this is totally from the side of the farmers that are complaining that this will make farming more expensive, and warning consumers that they will have to pay more for their carrots. Well I for one am willing to pay more for my food provided that it is healthier and safer to consume.
Seriously, how can this even be an issue! How have we allowed economics to get in the way of health and public safety?!
Here’s a sample from Reuters:By Jeremy Smith
BRUSSELS, Jan 13 (Reuters) - European Parliament members voted on Tuesday to ban some of the most toxic and dangerous pesticides to human health.
The move, likely to be endorsed by EU ministers in the next weeks, would let groups of countries with similar geography and climate decide whether farmers may use specific products.
A list of EU-approved “active substances” will be drawn up, with certain highly toxic chemicals to be banned unless their effect can be shown to be negligible – such as pesticides classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction.
That list will provide the basis for national EU governments to license each pesticide.
Pesticides already approved will remain available until their 10-year authorisation expires, so there should be no sudden large-scale withdrawal of products from the market.
Tuesday’s vote was made smoother by a deal struck last month by parliament, the EU’s executive commission and the bloc’s 27 national governments to hammer out the remaining political difficulties for a final agreement on the new pesticide rules.
EU states will be able to approve pesticides nationally or via mutual recognition within 120 days, with countries divided into three zones – north, centre and south – so pesticides can be approved for a region rather than a single country.
At present, approvals apply only for individual countries and there is no deadline set for mutual recognition approvals.
Crucially, EU countries will be allowed to ban a product, because of specific environment or agricultural circumstances.
Aerial crop-spraying will mostly be banned, with strict conditions placed on pesticides used near aquatic environments and drinking water supplies. Buffer zones will be set up around water and protected areas along roads and railways.
The changes agreed will make EU rules primarily a hazard-based, not risk-based, approach since they treat products in three categories: whether they are proven or suspected carcinogens, or whether there has been some observation – but no actual evidence – of carcinogenic behaviour.
The classifications, known as cut-off criteria, have annoyed Europe’s pesticides industry, which says the new law will remove products from the market that have been used safely for years.
“The banning criteria are of major concern to industry and the whole European food chain. European farmers have already lost 60 percent of the substances previously available in 1991,” the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) said.
ECPA is an umbrella organisation that represents Europe’s major pesticides companies. Bayer AG (BAYG.DE), BASF (BASF.DE) AND Syngenta AG (SYNN.VX) are among those which would be affected by new EU rules.
Many EU scientists, for example – backed by countries like Britain – have been fighting this approach and say fewer available pesticides will lead to resistance problems since pests that are regularly treated with a single product type, not a range of products, will develop tolerance.
This would damage agricultural productivity and make farming of certain crops in Europe uncompetitive, such as wheat and barley, cotton, potatoes and a range of fruits and vegetables, since yields would be reduced, they say.