Food industry in last-ditch bid to halt pesticides Regulation

The food industry has engaged in a last ditch attempt to halt the progress of EU proposals to restrict pesticide use, which it claims could cause crop yields to plummet at a time when food prices are already spiralling out of control.Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Crop Protection Association, said. "We're lobbying at every level to get politicians to look at this again. Trade associations from right across the food industry have also written to [British prime minister] Gordon Brown urging him to take their concerns to [French president] Nicolas Sarkozy.

"The message is simple: we have to have an EU-wide economic impact assessment done before this goes further."

He added: "It's all very well for the Commission to say we're overplaying the risks, but they don't have the evidence to prove we're not. Gordon Brown understands the issues, but we're not convinced Sarkozy does."

If the Regulation as originally drafted is approved, it could lead to a 20-30% drop in yields of most arable crops, according to the UK government's Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD).

If subsequent amendments proposed by the European Parliament are approved, however, the effects could be truly catastrophic, with more than 65% of the active ingredients used in pesticides and more than 90% of insecticides currently in use banned, claims the PSD.

While a compromise would probably be struck between the two positions when the proposal went through its second reading in the Parliament later this year, even the best case scenario was unpalatable for the food industry, claimed Alex Waugh, director general of UK flour millers' association NABIM. "We're talking about yield reductions of 24-29% on wheat."

The proposals include "cut-off" criteria that would ban the use of many active ingredients based solely on whether a substance was regarded as hazardous, not whether it posed a risk under realistic conditions of use, said the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA). "A lot of things including coffee and alcohol are hazardous at high doses, but normal use poses no risk to health."

Rapeseed oil, which is widely used in the food industry, could be particularly badly affected, warned the ECPA: "The proposals would not leave any effective compounds, other than sulphur and copper compounds, which have limited efficacy, for any of the major diseases affecting oilseed rape. And the two main ones - stem canker and light leaf spot - can reduce yields by up to 50%."