EU to tighten pesticide controls

[Pyan]

EU to tighten pesticide controls

EU agriculture ministers have approved stricter controls on the use of pesticides, after two years of debate.

Good news...you may think.

But the downside is that banning the pesticides that the EU has decided are not safe may cut yields, especially in cereals and potatoes by up to 25%.
At a time when food prices are rising, due to a combination of oil prices and climatic change, is this really the moment to make the farmers lives any more difficult?

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | EU to tighten pesticide controls

 

[Foxbat]

Yes, it is kind of a Catch 22 situation. I do think that, in many cases we are tying ourselvs in knots and sometimes the consequences don't seem to be fully thought through. Much as I dislike pesticides and would prefer that we relied on more natural methods (eg. allowing natural predators to do their job rather than indiscriminately using poisons) it must be difficult to find a balance that provides enough food but without too much chemical intervention.

On the other hand, this may just strengthen the case for Gentically Modified Crops to compensate for the expected low yield (another Genie out of the bottle).

 

[Ursa major]

I wonder if I might suggest that some of the food shortages, and some of the increases in the price of various foodstuffs, may not be due to levels of consumption or production but to the actions of some of the mechanisms that exist these two ends of the human food chain.

 

[Nik]

Snag is the toxins do accumulate, farmers & ancilliary staff do get poisoned handling the stuff, and many of the pests are developing resistance...

Also getting to stage where some lateral thinking might help. IIRC, there was some research on how far from hedge-line natural predators would spread into a field: Funnily enough, it matched the old strip-field system. IIRC, you could get same benefit by leaving a narrow, fallow strip at selected intervals as blasting entire crop with several sprays...