by Jago Wadley, International Advocacy Manager This week, PAN UK will apply for membership of the new Global Alliance on Highly Hazardous Pesticides (GAHHPs). We encourage all relevant actors in agriculture and food systems to join this important new initiative and contribute to its success. Applications can be made via [...]
by Nick Mole, Policy Manager, PAN UK Earlier this year, CropLife, the trade body that represents the UK pesticide industry, published a report that exposed their goals to protect profits and resist regulations that might impact their sales. As proposed under the new UK-EU SPS agreement, the UK’s farmers, food [...]
Analysis of official government data – launched today by PAN UK – reveals that the amount of glyphosate being applied to UK crops has risen from 200 metric tonnes per year in 1990 to more than 2,200 tonnes in 2024. Major increases have been seen on a wide range of [...]
By Professor Steve Ormerod, Cardiff School of Biosciences / Water Research Institute Anyone interested in pets or pesticides will have noticed that chemicals used in some veterinary flea or tick treatments occur as pollutants in streams, rivers and ponds. Focus has centred on imidacloprid (neonicotinoid) and fipronil (phenylpyrazole) - applied [...]
As Parliament prepares to debate the Water Reform Bill, PAN UK joins over 40 organisations - representing more than 9 million supporters collectively – calling on the UK Government to deliver urgent changes. Just 14% of English rivers are in Good Ecological Condition. Most water-dependent habitats in England’s protected [...]
A new study published in Frontiers in Agronomy, has found that training farmers in agroecological practices helps to protect them from the harmful impacts of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs). It also increases their income. Over 700 vegetable farmers in Ethiopia’s Lake Ziway region took part in a programme to promote agroecology [...]
Powerful commercial actors and the actions they take, affect us all, every day of our lives – many are undermining our health, our choices as individuals and the sustainability of the planet. They shape what we see, eat, and do. There is overwhelming evidence that the actions of many commercial [...]
An inflatable pesticides container the size of a 5-story apartment block calls for the phase out of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) outside the venue of the COP30 climate negotiations in Belem, Brazil. It aims to highlight their role in heating the planet and poisoning the future. [...]
The results of Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count are in. The sunniest spring and hottest summer ever recorded in the UK provided good weather conditions for butterflies after 2024’s record-breaking lows. However, the results from the Big Butterfly Count show that it was definitely not a bumper summer for our beleaguered [...]
by Kyle Morrison, University of New South Wales In freshwater and marine ecosystems around the world, pesticides are silently shifting the ways in which fish socialise and interact. A recent study has analysed data from 37 experiments that tested the impacts of 31 different pesticides on 11 different fish species. [...]
PAN UK is delighted with this week’s reset deal which commits the UK to following EU existing and future pesticide standards. While far from perfect, the EU’s pesticide standards are the strongest in the world in terms of protecting human health and the environment, and the UK played a seminal [...]
PAN UK will shortly join colleagues from PAN International in Geneva, Switzerland, for the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions – the ‘BRS COPS’ – where important decisions on a range of hazardous pesticides are on the table. The Stockholm Convention is focused on persistent [...]
The 6th edition of the Chocolate Scorecard has ranked Tony’s Chocolonely and Ritter Sport as among the most sustainable chocolate companies in the world. Run by Be Slavery Free, the scorecard ranks companies based on traceability and transparency across supply chains, whether they pay farmers a living income, efforts to [...]
Pesticides are causing overwhelming negative effects on hundreds of species of microorganisms, plants, insects, fish, birds and mammals that they are not intended to harm, and globally their use is a major contributor to the biodiversity crisis. That is the finding of the first study assessing the impacts of pesticides [...]
A study by the University of Sussex, published in Science of the Total Environment, has found that there is a high prevalence of veterinary drugs in bird nests. They analysed 103 blue and great tit nests sent in by volunteers on the Nesting Neighbour Scheme at the British Trust for [...]
By Aline Pompermaier & Marilia Hartmann, Laboratory of Ecology and Conservation, Federal University of Fronteira Sul Our recent study published by Scientific Reports has found that glyphosate-based pesticides significantly affect the early life stages of amphibians. Amphibians are experiencing a global population decline, with over a third of species threatened [...]
Climate change is the defining issue of our time. Food and agriculture play a major role. This week, the international community is convening in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As extreme weather events threaten lives and economies [...]
by Nick Tigg, Lewes Town Councillor Weeds spring up in unlikely places. They flourish in apparently unpromising soil, enthusiastically spreading through the fault lines under our feet. Which is also, coincidentally, how revolutions begin. And up on Lewes’s Nevill Estate in East Sussex, the smallest of revolutions is starting to [...]
Calling on our new government to undo the damage done to UK pesticide standards As we prepare to head off to Labour Party Conference this weekend, our minds are focused on what actions need to be taken by the new government to reduce pesticide-related harms to both human health and [...]
by Dr Victoria Burton, Ecologist, Natural History Museum It is widely recognised that human activities are driving global declines in biodiversity through land-use change, climate change, and pollution, including pesticide use. Soil biodiversity - comprising organisms like earthworms, insects, and mites - is crucial for maintaining healthy soils and is [...]
