There has been coverage on pesticides standards and new trade deals in The Telegraph, Independent and BBC Farming Today. This follows a report by the Pesticide Action Network UK and charity Sustain which claims that post-Brexit trade deals could be “catastrophic” for farmers if they allow imports with higher pesticide use.
A government spokesperson said:
“We have been clear we will not compromise on our high food and environmental standards and we will only permit the use of pesticides where robust scientific assessment shows they will not cause any harm to people or the environment.”
After the Transition Period we will take our own independent decisions on pesticides, ensuring our regulatory system is smart and efficient while continuing to deliver high standards of protection for the environment and human health.
We will ensure that the regulation of pesticides continues to develop with scientific knowledge and is robust and fit for purpose, so as to protect people and the environment.
3 comments
Comment by Roger Weeks posted on
We stand with Dr Brian Jones and agree with his scepticism of the robustness, sincerity and impartiality within any decision making process regarding pesticides. We believe in light of historical evidence that these departments have an inability to make any decision on anything other than purely a commercial basis. Pandering to powerful lobbyists and yielding before political pressure from their representatives, instead of acting with anything like a science or precautionary approach no matter how relevant.
Comment by Roger Cartwright posted on
"will only permit the use of pesticides where robust scientific assessment shows they will not cause any harm to people or the environment.”
This is not good enough - many people do not want to see any pesticides used.
A better guarantee would be a requrement that all additives and chemicals used in production or processing of any food are clearly labelled - in extra large letters!
Comment by Dr Brian Jones posted on
I, and many people like me, do not trust DEFRA on this issue. We know full well that you will cherry-pick whichever bits of scientific data, some of it fabricated by APHA, suits your economic policies. You will not follow the consensus scientific views on harms to the planet caused by pesticides or antibiotics and will put trade above all other considerations.