Sprouting discontent: organic movement regrets European Parliament’s failure to pesticides reduction
BRUSSELS, 22 NOVEMBER 2023 – IFOAM Organics Europe regrets the European Parliament’s inability to agree on a pesticides reduction regulation.
“The European Parliament’s watering down and rejection of the pesticides reduction regulation is shameful. Politicians who claim that they defend farmers by refusing to reduce synthetic pesticides fool themselves and the public. Policymakers’ lack of political will to take action to reduce pesticides makes it even more obvious that developing organic farming is the best way to protect people’s health and nature from toxic pesticides”, says Eric Gall, Deputy Director of IFOAM Organics Europe.
The widespread use of synthetic pesticides represents a significant burden on the health of European citizens, and farmers in particular. Synthetic pesticides are also the main cause of the disappearance of birds and insects in the European countryside and are largely responsible for polluting our waters with toxic substances.
Organic farming is the proof that it is possible to produce sufficient quality food without relying on synthetic pesticides. The organic approach to plant health care is mostly based on preventive and indirect agronomic measures, such as crop rotations, to manage pests and diseases, which can be complemented when needed for some crops with biocontrol solutions such as natural substances, most of which easily degrade in the environment.
Ends.
Contact details
Eva Berckmans, Communications Manager
+32 2 416 27 62, [email protected]
and
Maria Zintl, Policy Officer on Inputs and Organic Textiles
[email protected]
and
Eric Gall, Deputy Director
+32 491 07 25 37, [email protected]
or visit www.organicseurope.bio
Background information
Are you interested to know more? Have a look at:
Previous press releases:
- IFOAM Organics Europe welcomes progress on pesticides reduction negotiations (24 October 2023),
- Baking soda more dangerous than synthetic pesticides? – EU decision-makers on the brink of endorsing deceptive pesticide metrics (16 October 2023)
Background documents:
- Policy Brief: Correcting the Farm to Fork indicator – A prerequisite for pesticide reduction in the EU (16 October 2023)
- An FAQ with general background information (June 2022)
- GLOBAL 2000’s paper showing the HRI-1 systematically overestimates the risk of natural substances used in organic farming compared to synthetic substances (June 2022)
- IFOAM Organics Europe’s note (June 2022) explaining it is possible to build a better indicator based on data on pesticides sales, taking into example the French indicator NODU
Videos:
- Explaining the flawed pesticides indicator
- Organic’s approach to plant health care and pesticides regulation
IFOAM Organics Europe is the European umbrella organisation for organic food and farming. With almost 200 members in 34 European countries, our work spans the entire organic food chain and beyond: from farmers and processors organisations, retailers, certifiers, consultants, traders, and researchers to environmental and consumer advocacy bodies.