'Modest’ nationwide pesticide plan published

Commenting for Friends of the Earth, nature campaigner, Paul de Zylva, said:

“A credible action plan to cut pesticide use is long overdue. We now have a modest plan to help farmers and others get off the chemical treadmill.

“The over-reliance on pesticides harms people and wildlife and, by polluting waters and depleting soils, also undermines food security.

“Ministers need to prove their modest plan is good enough to keep their election pledge to protect bees, butterflies and the wider environment. They can start by closing the loopholes that allow the use of banned bee-harming pesticides.”

The new National Action Plan (NAP) for the sustainable use of pesticides includes two improvements on the previous discredited NAP: a target to cut pesticide use by 10% by 2030, and a greater focus on pesticide-free ways to farm and manage land. These modest aims could help reduce harm to people and wildlife, and address how their use undermines food security. The new plan’s failure to address the use of pesticides in urban areas is a major flaw.

Friends of the Earth has long called for the UK and devolved governments to introduce a credible plan which would include:

1. Cutting pesticide use – reducing the widespread use of pesticides through clear reduction targets for both usage and for toxicity.
2. Ending the use of neonicotinoid pesticides once and for all – closing the loophole that is exploited every year to use banned pesticides under the pretence of needing an 'emergency' authorisation to resist the ban.
3. Retaining the hazard approach – maintaining the UK’s ‘hazard-based’ approach to regulating pesticides and continuing the commitment to the precautionary principle, which involves limiting their use when the scientific evidence suggests there is a plausible risk of harm.
4. Using pesticides as a last, not first, resort – increasing the uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as the default in farming and other land uses. Adoption of IPM would mean the use of pesticides occurs only after a range of other methods to preventing harm are fully explored.
5. Independent advice to farmers – breaking the link between the advice that is given to farmers and the profits made by pesticide companies. Too often, advice is given by agronomists - experts in soil management and crop production - who are linked in some way to pesticide companies.
6. Ending pesticides in towns – phasing out pesticide and herbicide use in urban parks and streets which is unnecessary and risks the health of people, pets, wildlife, rivers and soils.

ENDS