The Labour Party has promised a moratorium
on organophosphate sheep dips and a tightening of the licensing and review
process of all OP compounds if it forms the next government. (Elections are due
before 1 May.)
Speaking at a conference organised by the Social and
Environmental Resources Association (SERA), Shadow Environment Minister Michael
Meacher acknowledged that pesticides presented some of the greatest ecological
threats.
Mr Meacher promised "the greenest government this country
has ever seen" and said he wanted to make a commitment to the environment
which would reach every government department. He said he would give every
citizen environmental rights, base social and economic policies on sustainable
development and put the environment at the heart of government.
All policies should be subject to an assessment of their
environmental impact, with an environmental audit committee in the House of
Commons. Gross National Product took no account of the state of the environment,
and new additional indicators were needed to show the health of water, air,
biodiversity, long-term pollution trends, food quality and resource depletion.
At a workshop on agriculture Professor Tim Lang of Thames
Valley University called for health and environmental policies to be integrated.
Food safety should be regulated so that consumer trust could be rebuilt, and
there should be a programme for pesticide reduction. "It should be safe to eat
an un-peeled carrot, and to give one to a six-month old baby," he said.
Prof. Lang also called for a separate food standards agency
and the reform of the research councils, with more emphasis placed on the
environment.
Vicki Hird of the SAFE Alliance said that the next government
would have an ideal opportunity to influence the Common Agricultural Policy as
Britain takes the presidency of the European Union in 1998. Sustainable food,
biodiversity and cultural diversity were future policy objectives endorsed by a
wide range of non-governmental organisations. Funds for a green farming training
scheme could come out of the existing agri-environment scheme, and sustainable
farming would provide more jobs. The target should be to have 50% of farmers
involved in agri-environment schemes.
Judy Steele is a freelance writer on sustainable agriculture.
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 35,
March 1997, page 19]