This year the EU will decide on the re-approval of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, the world's most popular and controversial weed killer. Exposure to the herbicide not only poses a risk to human health and other living organisms, it also threatens biodiversity and the future of agriculture. Published [...]
As part of a webinar series organised by FAO and the Rotterdam Convention to share experiences in reducing and phasing out Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs), PAN Ethiopia’s Project Coordinator, Atalo Belay, and PAN UK’s Staff Scientist, Stephanie Williamson, recently presented our experiences working with smallholder vegetable farmers in Ethiopia’s Central [...]
PAN UK recently presented at the international webinar ‘Alternatives to Paraquat Dichloride in Weed Management’, organised by FAO, the Rotterdam Convention and UN Environment Programme. Staff Scientist, Stephanie Williamson, summarises the different cultural, mechanical, manual and biological weed management methods which can be used for reducing reliance on herbicides below. [...]
PAN UK recently collaborated with the UN Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and policy makers in the Caribbean region on ways to reduce and phase out Highly Hazardous Pesticides. We were privileged to talk with regional experts on their experiences. Here Gustavo Gandini from the Dominican Republic talks about the [...]
By Paul Lievens, Communications & Policy Officer, Banana Link "Twenty or thirty years ago, people who are growing organic – they are crazy people! To grow organic is to think different. About the workers, about the social aspects also. To work with the communities. Also, to work with the [...]
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 [...]
by Sam Watson Jones, co-founder of Small Robot Company and fourth generation Shropshire farmer 'Harry' prototype robot with Sam Watson Jones, co-founder of Small Robot Company, Andrew Hoad, Partner & Head of the Leckford Estate, and Joe Allnutt, Head of Robot Awesomeness (credit Geoff Pugh) We’re living on [...]
NEW COTTON RESOURCE One of the principles of Integrated Pest Management is to make maximum use of natural pest control services provided by beneficial insects. Farmers are often unaware of these predatory and parasitic insects and may even spray them, not realising that they can help keep pest levels under [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
La Nación newspaper, Costa Rica, 29th August 2017 Translated from Spanish by PAN UK Processing plant will serve as a better means of dealing with foliage waste left over after harvesting pineapple fruit Machinery will also generate biogas fuel to generate electricity Creation of environment-friendly biofertiliser The first processing unit [...]
by Jorge Solano, Technical Dept., Eurofertil S.A., Costa Rica (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: With increasingly degraded, acidic and eroded soils, biological factors, as well as the usual [...]
by Renan Bajurto, Ecological Coffee Cooperative 'La Labor' (COCAFELOL) (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: Each farm is a different world- it’s important not only to train farmers but [...]
by Antonio Alberto Tzep Lopez and Diego Chox Dix, Cooperative Nahuala (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: Using natural ingredients instead of synthetic agrochemical inputs can give good results [...]
by Juan R. Montero Gamboa & Ing. Gabriel Umana AEA León Cortés, Monsol Sustainable Farm, Los Santos Zone, Costa Rica (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Shade management at Monsol [...]
by Edwar Vasquez Vallecillo, SMS Sustainable Management Services, Exportadora Atlantic & Elmer Sarantes Cáceres, Cooperative Santiago, Jinotega Dept, Nicaragua (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: Good IPM strategies for [...]
PAN Europe has published an updated edition of its report on alternatives to glyphosate as a contribution to the ongoing discussions among some Member States, led by France, on phasing out glyphosate and promoting alternatives. On the fringe of next week’s gathering of the EU agricultural ministers (Tuesday, 16 July), France will [...]
by Stephanie Williamson, Staff Scientist, PAN UK (26th September 2017) I was delighted to take part in a recent conference organised by the UK-India Agricultural Ecology Initiative and hosted by the British Ecological Society at its HQ in London. The conference brought together a range of mainly British and Indian [...]
This new booklet demonstrates that the phasing out of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) is possible. Replacing these pesticides with safer and sustainable alternatives can be done, technically and economically. Governments and supply chain actors can help put alternatives into practice. We use case studies to describe alternative methods for managing [...]
