| 25th Anniversary Appeal |
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PAN UK is the only UK charity focusing solely on the problems of global pesticide use. But our future is at risk – just when our work is more urgent than ever. The financial crisis has hit us hard and our income has halved in the last year. Without your support we will struggle to continue our fight against the use of toxic chemicals.  PAN UK was set up twenty-five years ago to expose and tackle the damage that pesticides cause to health and the environment. Today, our work is more vital than ever. Tens of thousands of people in the developing world die every year from accidental pesticide poisoning and countless more suffer from chronic illness. Alarmingly, more than 250,000 people take their own lives using pesticides every year, many of them poor farmers driven into despair by debt. It is a cruel irony that they end their lives using the very pesticides that forced them into debt.  PAN UK trains African farmers to use organic and low input techniques and creates markets for products like organic cotton, so that the farmers can escape poverty without jeopardising their own – or their family’s – health.Meanwhile, the pesticide industry pours millions of Euros into lobbying. The UK government has ignored public and NGO concerns about new pesticide legislation, choosing to side with industry, thus sticking with the current, environmentally disastrous approach. We will be challenging this sad outcome, in the courts if need be. I joined PAN UK as Director nine months ago. I first started working on pesticides in the early 1990s when I saw children as young as 7 in the tropics working with pesticides with little or no protection. PAN UK research shows that these abuses are widespread. I joined PAN UK to put my 20 years of environmental expertise into stopping these atrocities and to see farming – whether UK or African – become more equitable and sustainable.  I want a stronger PAN UK to uncover the concealed problems of pesticide use. Over the coming months, we will fight to prevent deaths with a global ban on endosulfan, and press the UK government for a ban on neonicotinoid pesticides that contribute to the crash in bee populations. PAN UK is an important counterweight to the powerful agro-industry lobby. The world can easily be fed without using huge amounts of agrochemicals. Our arguments are based on sound science and we offer realistic campaigns and practical solutions to reduce dependency on pesticides. We owe that to victims of pesticide use, to nature and to future generations. I hope you can help us continue our work. Please give as much as you can. Thank you!  .jpg) Keith Tyrell Director |
