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 9 million members of the public and manage over 2 million acres of land in the UK.
Ahead of the general election that will take place later this year, the Pesticide Collaboration have put together their key manifesto asks, and are urging every political party to include pesticide reduction in their policy proposals.
These five policy asks are:
- Introducing ambitious pesticide reduction targets
- Committing to a phase out of pesticide use in urban areas (pesticides that are used for weed management in towns and cities, in parks and on roads etc.)
- Committing to ending repeated emergency derogations of unauthorised pesticides – as we have seen with thiamethoxam on sugar beet crops
- Increasing support for farmers to adopt agroecological farming practices, including Integrated Pest Management
- Incorporating pesticide reduction into climate and biodiversity policy
More detail on these policy asks can be found here.
