Crop protection impasse frustrates farmers
A SECOND vote on whether the world’s most widely sold weedkiller should remain in use across Europe has ended in deadlock, as Michael Gove confirmed that Britain supports another chemical used by farmers to be banned from use in fields.
At a Brussels summit, EU countries failed to agree on whether to extend the license for weedkiller ingredient glyphosate, which is relied on by farmers to clear weeds from fields before sowing crops. Its current licence expires on December 15.
The use of insecticides also remains uncertain with three neonicotinoids set for an EU ruling next month. However, Environment Secretary Mr Gove has now confirmed Britain advocates greater limits on their use, citing new evidence linking the chemicals to harming pollinators, which are declining in numbers.
Farming leaders reacted with dismay to both situations, in contrast with the feelings of environmental campaigners.
A petition consisting of more than a million signatures was submitted to the European Commission over fears glyphosate causes cancer.
Those concerns have since been dismissed by the European Chemical Agency. Yet at a second vote, EU member states could not agree on its use. Reacting to the impasse, Guy Smith, vice president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “Once again we are left in a situation where no decision has been made on the reauthorisation of glyphosate, one of the safest plant protection products on the market which secures so much environmental benefit in terms of better soils and lower greenhouse
Continued from Page 1. gas emissions.” The latest indecision by the European Commission’s Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed follows a previous failure on October 25 to reach a consensus on glyphosate despite a ten-year relicensing period proposed then having been revised down to five years.
Mr Smith said: “Allowing member states to continue playing politics over this decision despite overwhelming science and evidence showing glyphosate’s safety does nothing but undermine the credibility of the EU’s regulatory bodies and the entire regulatory process.”
John Procter, Conservative MEP for Yorkshire and The Humber, added: “I know many farmers from the region are dependent on it in order to kill the weeds that threaten their crops and their livelihoods would suffer severely without it.”
Meanwhile, the Environment Secretary has said the UK supports further restrictions on neonicotinoids because of a “growing weight of scientific evidence they are harmful to bees and other pollinators”, adding that unless the scientific evidence changes, the Government will keep any increased restrictions agreed to at EU level postBrexit. Mr Gove said: “The weight of evidence now shows the risks neonicotinoids pose to our environment, particularly to the bees and other pollinators which play such a key part in our £100bn food industry, is greater than previously understood.”
The European Commission proposes restricting three neonicotinoids to allow their use only on plants in glasshouses. A current ban prohibits their use for oilseed rape, spring cereals and sprays for winter cereals.
An NFU spokesman said: “We don’t believe the evidence justifies this abrupt change in policy.”