Red Tractor is the UK’s largest food standards scheme with roughly 46,000 British members (21% of all UK farmers). It aims to drive up standards in the three areas of food safety, animal welfare and environmental protection. In January, Red Tractor launched a two-month public consultation on proposals to update [...]
by Sarah Haynes, Collaboration Coordinator, hosted by PAN UK Over the last few months, PAN UK and RSPB have mobilised 45 organisations and individual farmers and academics to respond collectively to the UK Government’s public consultation on the revised UK National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides [...]
Rt Hon George Eustice, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF 12th January 2021 Dear Secretary of State, We are extremely disappointed to hear that the UK Government has decided to grant an emergency derogation allowing sugar beet producers to use seeds [...]
In a comprehensive study released today, scientists report that pesticide poisonings on farms around the world have risen dramatically since the last global assessment 30 years ago. Based on an evaluation of available poisoning data from countries all over the world, the researchers conclude that there are about 385 million [...]
But there's still a long way to go... By Hannah Conway, Assistant Campaigner, PAN UK In November 2019, we launched a campaign calling on UK supermarkets to do more to protect human health and the environment from pesticides used in their global supply chains. Our top recommendation to all supermarkets [...]
by Michel Pimbert, Professor of Agroecology and Food Politics at Coventry University Pesticide companies are caught up in a fierce competition for survival. In the current context of global mergers and restructurings, transnational corporations need to continuously increase their sales of synthetic pesticides in every possible corner of the [...]
Supporting healthy, sustainable and productive smallholder vegetable farming: PAN Ethiopia and PAN UK’s new joint project in the Central Rift Valley Excessive use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) on vegetable crops grown for the Ethiopian market in the Lake Ziway area threatens the health of farmers and consumers. It also [...]
December 3rd 2018, is the 34th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster when a gas tank exploded in a Union Carbide pesticide factory in India, killing thousands of people. To date, half a million people have suffered from health consequences linked to that disaster. Elderly survivors of the Bhopal disaster [...]
by Keith Tyrell, Director, PAN UK On Friday, 10th August, a jury in California came to a momentous judgement: it agreed with a school groundsman’s claim that his rare form of cancer was caused by exposure to the herbicide known as Roundup. The case has huge implications for glyphosate – the [...]
by Dr Stephanie Williamson, Staff Scientist, PAN UK (9th August 2018) Agroecological approaches to farming are receiving increasing attention, both at international policy level and in some countries’ national programmes. PAN UK’s Agroecology web section gives readers a brief description of agroecology. It also provides case studies in coffee, pineapples [...]
by Jorge Solano, Technical Dept., Eurofertil S.A., Costa Rica (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: With increasingly degraded, acidic and eroded soils, biological factors, as well as the usual [...]
by Renan Bajurto, Ecological Coffee Cooperative 'La Labor' (COCAFELOL) (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: Each farm is a different world- it’s important not only to train farmers but [...]
by Antonio Alberto Tzep Lopez and Diego Chox Dix, Cooperative Nahuala (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: Using natural ingredients instead of synthetic agrochemical inputs can give good results [...]
by Juan R. Montero Gamboa & Ing. Gabriel Umana AEA León Cortés, Monsol Sustainable Farm, Los Santos Zone, Costa Rica (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Shade management at Monsol [...]
by Edwar Vasquez Vallecillo, SMS Sustainable Management Services, Exportadora Atlantic & Elmer Sarantes Cáceres, Cooperative Santiago, Jinotega Dept, Nicaragua (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: Good IPM strategies for [...]
by Dr Primo Chavarria, Weed Scientist, Costa Rica (This post is part of a summary of presentations prepared by Dr Stephanie Williamson, PAN UK, from the Coffee without HHPs workshop in Costa Rica, April 2017) Key messages: Avoid excessive or inappropriate use of glyphosate and other herbicides. Spraying several times [...]
PAN Europe has published an updated edition of its report on alternatives to glyphosate as a contribution to the ongoing discussions among some Member States, led by France, on phasing out glyphosate and promoting alternatives. On the fringe of next week’s gathering of the EU agricultural ministers (Tuesday, 16 July), France will [...]
by Prof Michael Eddleston and Dr Leah Utyasheva Highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) not only harm our health and environment and pollute our food and water.1 They also cause over 150,000 suicide deaths globally each year. Out of the 800 000 individuals who die from suicide worldwide each year - one death every [...]
Great result for pollinators as ban on bee-toxic pesticides made permanent Today’s news that the European Commission has extended – and made permanent – the existing ban on three bee-toxic neonicotinoids is warmly welcomed by Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK). After spending more than a decade warning of the [...]
Today (Wednesday 28th February) the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) has published its reviews of the scientific evidence on neonicotinoids and the harm they do to bees. Their reviews of approximately 1000 scientific papers has led them to conclude that the three neonicotinoids - clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam - all [...]
