Agroecology threatens the existence of a toxic pesticide industry

2019-05-07T13:08:00+01:00May 7th, 2019|Tags: , |

by Michel Pimbert, Professor of Agroecology and Food Politics at Coventry University Pesticide companies are caught up in a fierce competition for survival. In the current context of global mergers and restructurings, transnational corporations need to continuously increase their sales of synthetic pesticides in every possible corner of the [...]

Pesticides contributing to a sixth mass extinction

2019-02-15T17:22:20+00:00February 15th, 2019|

It’s not the first time we’ve heard about declining insect numbers in recent years, but last week a global scientific study, the first of its kind, shocked even those working in the field to the core. The study – as outlined in an article published in The Guardian - found [...]

Supporting sustainable vegetable farming in Ethiopia

2018-12-10T18:21:43+00:00December 10th, 2018|

Supporting healthy, sustainable and productive smallholder vegetable farming: PAN Ethiopia and PAN UK’s new joint project in the Central Rift Valley Excessive use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) on vegetable crops grown for the Ethiopian market in the Lake Ziway area threatens the health of farmers and consumers. It also [...]

Trade Union calls to ban glyphosate

2019-03-08T14:37:28+00:00October 18th, 2018|

(18th October 2018) In September, the GMB Union joined an ever-growing range of voices calling for the UK government to immediately ban glyphosate. Glyphosate is the world’s most widely used weedkiller which was declared as ‘probably carcinogenic’ by the World Health Organisation in 2015.  As well as being used widely [...]

The rise of organic agriculture in Ethiopia

2018-09-24T10:14:27+01:00September 19th, 2018|Tags: , , |

by Selam Yilma, Communications Officer, PAN Ethiopia (19th September 2018) Pesticide Action Nexus Ethiopia (PAN Ethiopia) has taken on the role of implementing the 'information and communication pillar' of the Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) initiative in Ethiopia. This pillar works to complement the work of other EOA partners through creating increased awareness and knowledge [...]

A day of reckoning for Roundup

2018-08-13T16:32:21+01:00August 13th, 2018|Tags: , , , , , |

by Keith Tyrell, Director, PAN UK On Friday, 10th August, a jury in California came to a momentous judgement: it agreed with a school groundsman’s claim that his rare form of cancer was caused by exposure to the herbicide known as Roundup. The case has huge implications for glyphosate – the [...]

Latest resources in agroecology

2018-08-09T16:37:16+01:00August 9th, 2018|Tags: , , , , |

by Dr Stephanie Williamson, Staff Scientist, PAN UK (9th August 2018) Agroecological approaches to farming are receiving increasing attention, both at international policy level and in some countries’ national programmes. PAN UK’s Agroecology web section gives readers a brief description of agroecology. It also provides case studies in coffee, pineapples [...]

Working to reduce global suicide by pesticide ingestion

2018-07-11T12:13:01+01:00July 11th, 2018|

by Prof Michael Eddleston and Dr Leah Utyasheva Highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) not only harm our health and environment and pollute our food and water.1 They also cause over 150,000 suicide deaths globally each year. Out of the 800 000 individuals who die from suicide worldwide each year - one death every [...]

A review of pesticide use in global cotton production – New edition 26th June 2018

2018-06-26T11:22:59+01:00June 26th, 2018|

As the Better Cotton Initiative General Assembly opens, PAN UK publishes a revised version of its report on global pesticide use in cotton. The revised report includes new data on the United States Cotton sector’s pesticide use provided by Cotton Incorporated, and includes a reanalysis of official US government data. [...]

Pesticide Regulation: Lessons learned from negotiating an EU-US trade deal

2018-05-14T17:57:10+01:00May 14th, 2018|

In 2015, the Center for International Environmental Law published a report ‘Lowest Common Denominator’ which examined how a proposed EU-US trade deal could weaken European standards of protection from toxic pesticides. The report analyses recommendations from pesticide industry lobby groups – CropLife America (CPA) and the European Crop Protection Association [...]

A win for all pollinators

2018-05-02T16:36:31+01:00April 27th, 2018|

Great result for pollinators as ban on bee-toxic pesticides made permanent Today’s news that the European Commission has extended – and made permanent – the existing ban on three bee-toxic neonicotinoids is warmly welcomed by Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK). After spending more than a decade warning of the [...]

DowDuPont: A contamination legacy

2018-05-02T16:46:33+01:00February 6th, 2018|

by Colin Toogood, Campaigns Manager at Bhopal Medical Appeal Over the past few years, plans have been afoot for the world’s largest chemical companies to merge into giant, new mega-corporations. Among the markets they seek to control, through these manoeuvres, is the supply of food where sterile crops grown in [...]

Glyphosate: A victory for corporate lobbying, not science

2018-05-02T16:48:54+01:00January 10th, 2018|

by Josie Cohen, Head of Policy and Campaigns (January 2018)  In November 2017, EU member States narrowly voted for a five-year reauthorisation of glyphosate, the world’s most widely used weedkiller. While this is far from the fifteen-year license the agrochemical industry was pushing for, the result was a major disappointment [...]

First certified organic cotton farmers in Ethiopia

2018-05-02T16:52:21+01:00January 9th, 2018|

Project success as 200 Ethiopian farmers become the first to produce certified organic cotton in the country Since 2013, with financial support from TRAID and in collaboration with PAN-Ethiopia, our project in southern Ethiopia has provided training for over 2000 smallholder cotton farmers. Training in our Farmer Field Schools demonstrates [...]

Glyphosate renewed for a further five years

2018-05-02T16:56:32+01:00October 24th, 2017|

Update - 27th November - Glyphosate license renewed for a further five years PAN UK is disappointed to report that the controversial weed killer, glyphosate, has been given approval for use in the EU for a further five years. What is even more disappointing is that the new approval comes [...]

Is cotton conquering its chemical addiction?

2018-06-26T11:38:39+01:00October 10th, 2017|

A review of pesticide use in global cotton production - 10th October 2017 (PLEASE FIND OUR REVISED ISSUE FOR JUNE 2018 HERE) A new report published today by PAN UK, with support from the C&A Foundation, investigates the current rate of pesticide use in cotton, and examines its trends [...]

Life-changing training in Ethiopia

2018-05-03T09:19:24+01:00September 19th, 2017|

by Sam Claydon, Communications Officer, PAN UK (19th September 2017) PAN UK is working with partners and colleagues in Ethiopia to teach smallholder cotton farmers how to manage their fields using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods in order to move away from an over-reliance on pesticides. In a lucky turn [...]

Phasing Out Highly Hazardous Pesticides in Costa Rica

2018-05-03T09:25:44+01:00June 7th, 2017|Tags: , , , , |

by Stephanie Williamson, Staff Scientist, PAN UK I’ve recently returned from an exciting ten days in Costa Rica, working with our partners at the Regional Institute for Research on Toxic Substances (IRET) at the National University. The aim of my visit was to share findings from our project on Phasing [...]

Pesticide-Free Cotton in Ethiopia

2018-05-03T09:27:13+01:00May 31st, 2017|

Since 2013 we have been working to support cotton farmers in Southern Ethiopia to adopt safer and more sustainable methods of growing pesticide-free cotton. We now have 2000 smallholder farmers achieving average yields over 100% higher than before. An organic cotton producers’ cooperative is selling Grade A organic cotton [...]

Pesticide Gains and Losses at the Triple COPs

2018-05-03T09:29:37+01:00May 18th, 2017|

by Dr Meriel Watts, Senior Science Advisor of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) PAN UK recently attended the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions Conferences of Parties (Triple COPs), held in Geneva in May 2017. These conventions are international initiatives attempting to establish basic regulatory measures for pesticides at the global [...]

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