The European Commission wants to minimize the use of chemical pesticides in the EU by 50 percent over the next years, in a benchmark recognized by the brand-new Farm to Fork and Biodiversity technique on Wednesday (20 May).

Nevertheless, the conclusive target will be subjected to the results of a threat evaluation that the commission strategies to advanced prior to 2022 – when the existing guidelines on the sustainable use of pesticides will need to be upgraded.

Chemical pesticides are utilized for the security of crops and plants, however they are likewise possibly poisonous to people, bees and other pollinators.

In 2018, a 3rd of the food consumed in the EU consisted of residues of 2 or more pesticides, consisting of prohibited pesticides that are not authorized to be utilized in the EU, according to the European Food Safety Authority.

This is why over 80 NGOs and over 300,000 people have actually called consistently on the commission for a much greater 80 percent reduction target of chemical pesticides, and to accomplish their full phase-out by 2035.

Nevertheless, even the decrease target proposed by the commission is not “realistic” according to the market.

“A reduction rate of 50 percent by 2030 is not realistic and will not have the desired effect of having a more sustainable food production model in Europe,” stated the director-general of the European Crop Defense Association, Géraldine Kutas.

” Thanks to advances in crop security items, usually, there has actually been a 97 percent decrease [in the use of these products] compared to what was required in the 1960 s,” she added.

On The Other Hand, MEPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists and the European People’s Party groups have actually formerly asked the commission to hold off the technique up until the Covid-19 crisis is over.

Liberal MEP Pascal Canfin, who chairs the European Parliament environment committee, invited the commission’s proposition and dedicated to making it compulsory in the continuous reform of the Typical Farming Policy.

Nevertheless, Canfin complained the absence of response to parliament’s demands to minimize the market existence of “bee-killing pesticides which have actually been suffering a hecatomb [huge sacrifice] for a number of years in Europe”.

Bee-killing pesticides

The number of bee nests has declined by more than 50 percent in some member states.

This is why the biodiversity technique states that a minimum of 10 percent of the used farming location ought to be scheduled for wild animals, plants, pollinators and natural bug regulators.

Research Studies from throughout Europe show that if a minimum of 10-14 percent of farming land is left to nature, then pollinators would recuperate.

Besides parasites and pathogens, one of the most significant hazards to honeybees is the typical direct exposure to pesticides utilized in farming.

Previously this year, the European Court of Auditors concluded that the commission has actually not been able to properly keep track of the threat of pesticides due to the absence of comprehensive, harmonised and upgraded information amongst member states.

Likewise, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) knocked that there is no definitive information about the accurate quantity of pesticides utilized in the EU’s farming sector.

The EU’s executive body objectives to modify the pesticides data guideline to conquer such information spaces in2023

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Fertilisers

In Addition, the Farm to Fork technique objectives to minimize the excess of nutrients – specifically nitrogen and phosphorus – in the environment, by minimizing a minimum of 20 percent of the use of fertilisers by 2030.

The commission, together with member states, will advance an ‘integrated nutrient management action strategy’ to address nutrient contamination – with additional steps, if required.

Nevertheless, some NGOs knocked the commission’s technique as ‘half- baked’.

” The Farm to Fork Technique leaves the door open for deteriorating GMO [genetically modified organism] safety laws, stays precariously weak on pesticides and commercial animal farming,” stated Mute Schimpf from NGO Buddies of the Earth Europe.

“Agribusiness executives will sleep well tonight,” she added.

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