Brexit presents both significant threats and opportunities in terms of addressing existing concerns around pesticide cocktails. Despite government promises to the contrary, the UK’s exit from the EU threatens to significantly weaken UK pesticide standards. This could potentially lead to a major rise in the number of active substances authorised for use in the UK, as well as an increase in the level and variety of pesticides permitted to appear in UK food. Both of these outcomes would increase the exposure of the public and environment to potentially dangerous pesticide cocktails.
Brexit also presents a number of opportunities to introduce new measures to drive a reduction in pesticide-related harms and lessen the reliance of UK agriculture on chemical pesticides. These include adopting a pesticide reduction target and introducing measures to support UK farmers to transition to whole farm agroecological systems that include genuine and holistic Integrated Pest Management (IPM).