| PAN Europe competition to find ‘Bee-friendly Farmer of the Year’ - British entrants needed! |
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 PAN UK is organising the British heats of a new annual ‘European Integrated Production Farmer/Grower of the Year’ competition run by PAN Europe. The competition aims to recognise and reward those farmers and growers making an extra effort to produce food crops in a sustainable manner and to inspire other farmers to undertake more ecologically-based practices. The theme for the 2011 award is ‘Bee-friendly Practices’, in collaboration with the European Beekeeping Coordination. This topic has been chosen to tie in with the 2010 UN International Year of Biodiversity and high profile concerns about loss of bees and other pollinators in many European countries. Heats will be held in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and UK. The deadline for entries to the British heats is 31st December 2010.The competition is open to any non-organic farmers growing arable, combinable or horticultural crops at a commercial level. We recognise that organic farmers already make an important contribution to bee health and biodiversity but this competition aims to promote innovative practices and give public recognition to ‘trailblazers’ in the 97% of European agriculture that is not organic. Entrants need to be able to show a range of bee-friendly practices they have introduced , including pesticide management strategies which recognise potential impacts on pollinators, as well as habitat enhancement and crop husbandry aspects. PAN UK will make two awards, for the best Arable IP Farmer and best Horticultural IP Grower, to be presented at our Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture in March 2011. National winners from the 5 countries will be judged by a European panel of experts, including beekeepers, bee scientists and ecotoxicologists. The European overall winner will be awarded at an event in the European Parliament in Brussels during PAN Europe’s Week of Alternatives to Pesticides during 20-30 March 2011. By running this competition in the UK, we will show our continental colleagues that we have good IP farmers in UK, even though we have no formal labelling scheme for IP produce (such as the ones in Italy, Switzerland, France and some other EU countries). Our competition complements other British initiatives supporting efforts to conserve populations of bees and other pollinators. PAN Europe will publish the practices reported by the national winners as a ‘Best IP Practices’ technical guide, along with the good stories from interviews with the winners on how they have changed their farming practices. We aim to show Brussels and national level policymakers that ecologically-based IP is feasible technically and economically and deserves more support.
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