Proudly Pesticide-Free: Part 1

2024-03-05T14:33:50+00:00March 12th, 2024|

This year we are celebrating 10 years since the start of farmer training in our joint project with PAN Ethiopia to get rid of Highly Hazardous Pesticides on cotton farms in Ethiopia’s Southern Rift Valley. We’re kicking off with a video from PAN Ethiopia’s Director, Dr Tadesse Amera, praising the [...]

Stories from the Ground

2024-03-05T09:08:05+00:00March 7th, 2024|

Cotton is the world’s most popular natural fibre, produced by over 24 million cotton growers in 75 countries. Whilst cotton farmers and workers are indispensable to the global fashion industry, they are largely excluded from conversations and stories around sustainability. To understand and transform the fashion and textile industry, we [...]

Take pesticide products off supermarket shelves!

2024-03-03T08:37:08+00:00March 3rd, 2024|

The growing movement calling for supermarkets to stop selling harmful gardening pesticide products continues to make progress with your help. A number of major supermarkets are currently reconsidering their sale of synthetic pesticides so an email from you now could have real impact. Thanks to public pressure, Co-op and [...]

Calling on supermarkets to ban bee-toxic pesticides

2023-07-09T23:17:06+01:00July 9th, 2023|

UK supermarkets have huge global footprints and the power to make change. They urgently need to ban bee-toxic pesticides and support growers around the world to adopt more sustainable, non-chemical alternatives. Our pollinators need us! Join us in asking Asda, Aldi, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose [...]

Toxic chemical cocktails found at over 1,600 river and groundwater sites across England

2023-05-24T11:05:57+01:00May 24th, 2023|

New analysis of official Environment Agency data has revealed the worrying scale of chemical cocktail pollution in rivers and other freshwater sites across England. The research, which looked at the prevalence of give chemical cocktails known to have toxic impacts for wildlife, also highlights the lack of official monitoring for [...]

The climate emergency is devastating Ethiopian farmers

2023-05-24T10:19:08+01:00May 15th, 2023|

by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK Staff Scientist PAN Ethiopia teams meet up for week of training in Arba Minch. Credit PAN UK I recently had the privilege of visiting my hard-working, dedicated colleagues in Ethiopia to find out how our joint projects on growing cotton organically and [...]

UK government allows ‘emergency’ use of banned bee-harming pesticide

2023-01-24T10:34:45+00:00January 24th, 2023|

by Amy Heley, The Pesticide Collaboration The government has announced that for the third year in a row, it will permit the use of the banned pesticide thiamethoxam – a type of neonicotinoid – on sugar beet in England in 2023. A single teaspoon of neonicotinoid is enough to deliver [...]

Chemical pollution – the silent killer of UK rivers

2022-12-20T09:17:22+00:00December 20th, 2022|

By Lauren Harley, Wildfish From the cleaning products we use, to the medicines we take and the food we eat - our everyday lives are filled with chemicals. Their use provides many benefits, but once they have fulfilled their intended purpose, chemicals don’t just disappear. Pesticides, pharmaceuticals and plasticisers (chemicals [...]

Scaling up organic cotton production in Benin

2022-09-06T11:30:46+01:00September 6th, 2022|

By Dr Alex Stuart, International Project Manager (Agroecology), PAN UK My first trip to Benin was a fascinating experience. I arrived in Cotonou, a bustling port city that was originally founded by King Ghezo of Dahomey in 1830 and then occupied by the French from 1883 until Benin gained independence [...]

Call for United Nations to end partnership with pesticide industry

2022-06-09T15:34:21+01:00June 9th, 2022|

Today, 430 civil society and Indigenous peoples organisations from 69 countries around the world called on the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to uphold human rights and end its partnership with CropLife International. CropLife is the industry association that represents the world’s largest pesticide manufacturers. Ahead of the [...]

UK Government permits use of bee-toxic insecticides

2022-05-10T15:03:51+01:00January 14th, 2022|

The UK Government has today announced that it has approved an application by the British sugar beet industry and National Farmers Union (NFU) to use the bee-toxic insecticide, thiamethoxam, this growing season. The announcement mirrors a January 2020 decision from the UK Government. Last year, Defra made similar concessions to [...]

We are part of the solution

2021-05-22T07:21:06+01:00May 21st, 2021|

by Dr Alex Stuart, International Project Manager, PAN UK Due to the beautiful and complex interactions that occur between species, maintaining biodiversity underpins all life on earth. However, according to a recent UNEP report, the global rate of species extinction is now tens to hundreds of times higher than the [...]

People make mistakes – lessons learned from high-risk industries

2021-05-13T09:46:45+01:00May 13th, 2021|

by Keith Tyrell, Director, PAN UK Three decades ago, as a young graduate I embarked on a career in environmental and safety management.  One of my first jobs was working on the safety systems of highly hazardous industries like oil and gas and chemical plants to ensure that the risk [...]

Unprecedented support for the UK to drastically reduce pesticide use

2021-03-19T12:01:32+00:00March 5th, 2021|

by Sarah Haynes, Collaboration Coordinator, hosted by PAN UK Over the last few months, PAN UK and RSPB have mobilised 45 organisations and individual farmers and academics to respond collectively to the UK Government’s public consultation on the revised UK National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides [...]

Organisations unite against neonicotinoids decision

2021-03-19T12:03:46+00:00January 12th, 2021|

Rt Hon George Eustice, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF 12th January 2021 Dear Secretary of State, We are extremely disappointed to hear that the UK Government has decided to grant an emergency derogation allowing sugar beet producers to use seeds [...]

Bees, beets and obesity

2021-03-19T12:06:48+00:00September 16th, 2020|

by Nick Mole, Policy Officer, PAN UK UPDATE (26th Oct 2020): FRANCE AND NEONICOTINOIDS There are mixed messages coming from France about the continued use of neonicotinoid insecticides. On the one hand the European Court of Justice ruled that France was entirely within its rights [...]

Does farm pesticide use harm UK birds?

2021-03-19T12:07:01+00:00September 2nd, 2020|

by Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology, University of Sussex The charity, Songbird Survival, are funding two PhD students in my lab at Sussex University, Priyesha Vijendra and Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, to investigate whether pesticides are contributing to the ongoing declines of farmland birds. Impacts of pesticides on birds first [...]

Are big brands doing enough to support sustainable cotton farmers?

2020-02-13T07:43:26+00:00February 13th, 2020|

Sustainable Cotton Ranking 2020 Published by PAN UK, Solidaridad and WWF, the Sustainable Cotton Ranking 2020 reveals significant progress by big brands toward more sustainable cotton. But also that the divide is growing between companies that take their responsibilities seriously and the many companies that do not. Adidas has surged ahead, [...]

2020: A massive year for UK pesticides

2020-02-24T22:33:23+00:00January 31st, 2020|

by Josie Cohen, Head of Policy & Campaigns, PAN UK I joined PAN UK in June 2017 to help ensure that UK pesticide standards didn’t drop as a result of Brexit. There was a flurry of activity at the time and, over the next 18 months, we were kept [...]

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