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 [...]
Hello, I’m Ella, the ‘new’ Supermarkets Campaigner here at PAN UK. It’s been six months since I started this position – on one hand I can hardly believe it’s been that long and on the other it feels like I’ve been here forever. I remember the moment I got a [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Analysis launched today shows that food imported into Great Britain may pose a greater risk to consumer health than domestically grown produce. The most recent testing by the UK government detected 46 pesticides with links to cancer on imported produce, compared to 19 on food of UK origin. These results [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Analysis launched today has revealed that the Conservative government attacked pesticide residue safety limits on a range of common GB food items including blackberries, grapes, onions and potatoes. Between 2022 and 2024, safety limits were weakened for 115 types of produce. While most of the food types affected are fruit [...]
The second of Atalo Belay’s reflections on ten years of tackling hazardous pesticide use on smallholder cotton farms in Southern Ethiopia Read the first part ‘The pioneers’ here. A reason to believe It was difficult to get farmers to believe in the project at first. After years of using pesticides, [...]
New research reveals that many common UK food items contain PFAS pesticides. PAN UK analysed the latest results from the UK government’s residue testing programme, finding that ten different PFAS pesticides were present in spices and a range of fruit and vegetables including grapes, cherries, spinach and tomatoes. Strawberries were [...]
Based on official figures, PAN UK has today revealed that the proportion of bread containing two or more pesticides has almost doubled in the past year to 50%. The figure marks a major increase from government testing results over the past decade when, on average, roughly a quarter of bread [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Trade deals, pesticides and why we have joined the Future British Standards Coalition by Josie Cohen, Head of Policy & Campaigns, PAN UK PAN UK is proud to have been invited to join the recently-launched Future British Standards Coalition. We will be providing expertise on pesticides to this new panel [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
But there's still a long way to go... By Hannah Conway, Assistant Campaigner, PAN UK In November 2019, we launched a campaign calling on UK supermarkets to do more to protect human health and the environment from pesticides used in their global supply chains. Our top recommendation to all supermarkets [...]
by Stephanie Williamson, Staff Scientist, PAN UK Launched in July 2019, the latest report from the convenors of the RSA’s Food, Farming & Countryside Commission, entitled Our Future in the Land, could have been yet another worthy, dull and hard to digest report of interest mainly to policy nerds and [...]
