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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.
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 The greatest use of pesticides in the UK is in agriculture.
Over 31,000 tonnes of pesticide active ingredient were applied to agricultural land in 2004 and our dependence on chemicals is increasing, despite rising sales of organic produce.
Pesticides are regulated in the UK, so why is such a high level of pesticide use is a problem?
What is PAN UK doing to address problems in the UK?
* Informing the public about pesticides so that
* everyone can use their buying power to influence how our food is grown – see our hidden extras pages
* People can find other ways of controlling pests in their own homes and gardens, and use pesticides in a responsible manner – see our gardening tips, alternative control directory and disposal information
Working with a wide range of stakeholders to challenge and improve UK pesticide regulation and policy
Who funds our work?
Grateful thanks to Sheepdrove Trust, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust who fund our UK agriculture work. |
Pesticides are the only chemicals deliberately made to be toxic and introduced directly into the environment. They are used in agriculture to control insects, weeds and diseases, resulting in higher yields and allowing growers to meet quality standards. Unwanted pesticide residues are ubiquitous and can be found every where in the environment – soil, air and water, in our food and in our bodies.
Pesticides can affect public health
• Some pesticides are acutely toxic, and can cause death and serious ill health
• Some pesticides are known to cause cancer or birth defects.
• Some pesticides - endocrine disruptors - affect hormone systems and may be altering the basis of life, even at very concentrations.
• In the UK some people exposed to even small amounts of pesticides suffer severe allergic reactions
• The drinking water industry spends a significant amount of our money removing pesticides from our water
Pesticides are continuing and acknowledged problem in the environment
• Many commonly-used pesticides are toxic to aquatic life and their presence in UK rivers is a continuing problem. The environment Agency monitor pesticides in surface water. See Environment Agency: Pesticides in Fresh Waters for more information.
• Pesticide use is strongly associated with declining populations of farmland birds – both the RSPB and the British Trust for
• Ornithology have documented this. See the Winter Farmland Birds Survey for more information
• Other species – plants and insects in particular - are declining because of intensive agriculture, including pesticide use, which results in degradation of habitats. Cereal field margins are priority habitats in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.
Our dependence on chemical pest control for food production is continuing to increase. Industry figures suggest increasing global sales of pesticides, and data for a number of key individual pesticides in the UK (http://pusstats.csl.gov.uk/index.cfm) show that the use of many of these has risen:
• Use of chlorpyrifos – an organophosphate - rose in 2004 to almost 200 tonnes
• In 2004, almost 30 tonnes of aldicarb – one of the most toxic pesticides approved for use in the UK – was used on UK land.
• 54 tonnes of paraquat – responsible for two fatal poisonings in the UK in 2004/5 – were used in 2004.
• The use of glyphosate – shown in the recent farm scale evaluations of herbicide-tolerant GM crops to lead to reductions in biodiversity – Increased more than 5-fold between 1993 and 2004. |
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Agriculture
