CLA joins forces with industry to call a halt to new legislation

The CLA has joined forces with the Crop Protection Association and other leading organisations linked with the farming industry to write directly to the Prime Minister, calling a halt to a proposed pesticide legislation.

The draft Regulation includes approval to remove pesticides that can be deemed hazardous if not correctly used. However, such a removal would have an adverse affect on the crop farming industry.

CLA President Henry Aubrey-Fletcher said: "If this draft Regulation becomes legislation UK farmers could lose a great deal of the pesticides they currently use and that have been in use for many years. Such a cut back could mean that crops are more vulnerable to the diseases that periodically sweep Western Europe. In such cases, food prices would go up and we would have to rely more heavily on imports and often imports grown with the pesticides banned here.

"There has been no EU-wide import assessment of the proposals. This makes a mockery of the Commission’s claim to follow evidence-based policy."

The CLA President added: "In the current food security climate, the emphasis in UK farming should be on producing as much food as responsibly as possible, not eliminating pesticides that are used safely every year. Let’s not forget pesticides are used for a reason, to protect our valuable crops from devastating disease."