Since the Pesticide-Free Towns campaign launched in 2015, PAN UK has helped more than one hundred UK local authorities reduce or end their use of pesticides with relatively little fanfare. In fact, in most places in the UK, how councils choose to manage weeds has generally been considered a rather [...]
Last month, we contacted our supporters about the Pesticide Collaboration’s new campaign, which is calling for a national ban on the use of pesticides in urban areas. We have now had over 100 councillors sign on to our letter to the UK Government, demonstrating that there is widespread support from [...]
The third and final part of Atalo Belay’s reflections on ten years of tackling hazardous pesticide use on smallholder cotton farms in Southern Ethiopia Read the first part ‘The pioneers’ here. Read the second part ‘Hard work pays off’ here. Are we winning? We have now trained more than 8,500 [...]
The second of Atalo Belay’s reflections on ten years of tackling hazardous pesticide use on smallholder cotton farms in Southern Ethiopia Read the first part ‘The pioneers’ here. A reason to believe It was difficult to get farmers to believe in the project at first. After years of using pesticides, [...]
The first of Atalo Belay’s (PAN Ethiopia) reflections on ten years of tackling hazardous pesticide use on smallholder cotton farms in Southern Ethiopia The pesticide problem Ethiopia’s Southern Rift Valley was a cotton production area where large volumes of pesticides were being used by both commercial and smallholder cotton farmers. [...]
PAN UK is supporting the Pesticide Collaboration on their new campaign calling for a national ban on pesticide use in urban spaces. After diet, pesticide use in our villages, towns and cities is the second most common route through which people are exposed to these chemicals. The most commonly used [...]
New research reveals that many common UK food items contain PFAS pesticides. PAN UK analysed the latest results from the UK government’s residue testing programme, finding that ten different PFAS pesticides were present in spices and a range of fruit and vegetables including grapes, cherries, spinach and tomatoes. Strawberries were [...]
The Pesticide Collaboration – hosted by Pesticide Action Network UK and the RSPB – is a coalition of environmental and health groups, academics, farming networks, trade unions and consumer rights organisations working under a shared vision to urgently reduce pesticide-related harms in the UK. Together, these groups represent more than [...]
This year we are celebrating 10 years since the start of farmer training in our joint project with PAN Ethiopia to get rid of Highly Hazardous Pesticides on cotton farms in Ethiopia’s Southern Rift Valley. We’re kicking off with a video from PAN Ethiopia’s Director, Dr Tadesse Amera, praising the [...]
Cotton is the world’s most popular natural fibre, produced by over 24 million cotton growers in 75 countries. Whilst cotton farmers and workers are indispensable to the global fashion industry, they are largely excluded from conversations and stories around sustainability. To understand and transform the fashion and textile industry, we [...]
The growing movement calling for supermarkets to stop selling harmful gardening pesticide products continues to make progress with your help. A number of major supermarkets are currently reconsidering their sale of synthetic pesticides so an email from you now could have real impact. Thanks to public pressure, Co-op and [...]
What now for your Pesticide-Free Towns Campaign? Councils are receiving less funding, and their budgets and services are being cut. Six councils, including Birmingham and Nottingham have declared bankruptcy, and many more might follow. Most recently, Havering Borough Council revealed that they would need to file for bankruptcy if they [...]
by Lucy Sabin Andalusia. A region in Southern Spain often associated with sunshine, blue skies, and the rich cultural life of its capital, Seville. If you enjoy strawberries with cream or chopped up in a cocktail then chances are you have tasted a part of Andalusia, a part less known [...]
Brighton and Hove Council have decided to reinstate the use of the controversial herbicide, glyphosate, on the city’s streets. This decision bucks the trend of recent years which has seen more than one hundred UK local authorities either end, or significantly reduce, their use of pesticides in urban areas and [...]
By Natalie Bennett (kindly reproduced with permission from the author, the original article can be found here) Pesticides: anyone who has followed my work will know I have spoken at length and on multiple occasions, about the vast and uncontrolled environmental damage that these products cause. Now, it is becoming clearer by the [...]
Recent results from the UK Government’s testing programme have exposed a dramatic increase in the proportion of wine that contains multiple pesticide residues – from 14% in 2016 (the last time that wine was tested) to 50% in 2022. The official data – which has been collated and analysed by [...]
Transforming agriculture and food systems – which generate over a third of global emissions – is essential to limit global warming in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Weaning the world off industrial agriculture reliant on fossil-fuelled chemical inputs like pesticides and fertilisers is fundamental to that. The UN’s [...]
By Emma Pavans de Ceccatty, PAN UK As early as the 1990s, Paris was already putting significant measures in place to reduce their use of pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc.) on streets, pavements, parks, playgrounds and other urban spaces. By 2017, when a national ban on all amenity use [...]
Pesticides used in veterinary medicines for dogs and cats are leaching into the natural environment. New analysis launched today reveals that five chemicals deemed to be too environmentally-damaging to be used as pesticides on crops are still being routinely included in pet medicines. Pointing out the inconsistency of this [...]
by Laura Potts, resident of York and former PAN trustee Laura organised a recent walk around Bishophill in York, looking at weeds growing on local streets. The walk was part of York Environment Week 2023 (actually more like a month of community generated events), and inspired by PAN ‘Greener Cities’ [...]
