UK farmers warn of food crisis if EU tightens pesticide controls

Commercial farming of cereals and vegetables such as carrots, onions and parsnips in Britain will be badly damaged under proposals to curb pesticides backed by EU agriculture ministers this week, farmers and government watchdogs claim.

More stringent safety tests wanted by many MEPs could effectively destroy crop farming as currently practised in the UK and much of Europe within a few years, they claim, potentially sending prices soaring and exacerbating world food shortages.

But supporters of the controls accuse the farming and pesticides industries of trying to creating panic through "propaganda" on the potential impacts.
Britain, Romania, Hungary and Ireland abstained on Monday as ministers agreed a package that could lead to large numbers of pesticides being outlawed because of fears they can cause cancer, disrupt genes and hormones and cause reproductive problems. MEPs want extra safeguards including ensuring chemicals are not toxic to bees and do not damage the nervous system.

The UK government's pesticides safety directorate (PSD) has warned the package of measures could result in cereal yields falling by up to 30%, with big losses in vegetable crops. No final decision will be made on the proposals until early in 2009, but the PSD alleges they could mean the end of conventional commercial agriculture in Britain and much of the EU. The final decision must be made jointly by ministers and the parliament and there is likely to be some compromise between the two positions.

Paul Temple, vice-president of the UK's National Farmers' Union, said the ministers' decision on Monday was disappointing since there had been no European Commission assessment of how changes would affect agricultural production. "At a time of rising food prices and long-term concerns over food security, this is irresponsible. In fact, the irony of the situation is that the food we import into the EU will be grown using the very same pesticides the EU is trying to ban."

But Hiltrud Breyer, a German Green MEP who is an investigator on the issue for the European parliament, said exaggerated arguments brought forward by the pesticides industry were causing "panic". She believed the parliamentary proposals would be "a win-win situation for everybody, for the consumer ... for the environment and also for industry, because industry gets incentives to make safe pesticides."

Georgina Downs, of the UK Pesticides Campaign, said: "The UK government has always been more concerned about burdens on industry than about protecting public health." There was evidence farming without chemicals could produce higher yields, she said.

UK environment department Defra said it feared the present proposals would have a significant impact on crop protection "but secure no significant health benefits for consumers".