This was the news splashed across many media channels yesterday and today. Many sources got it wrong and suggested, or implied, that all pesticides are to be banned. In fact only a small number will be banned so don’t believe the scaremongers who claim that UK agriculture will collapse!
It really is about time we realised that there is no place for poisons in food. Banning some of the more harmful pesticides is a start but it does not go far enough. There should be zero pesticide residues in all food.
The biggest losers are the multinational agrochemical companies. They will make a noise and with the inevitable support of the NFU will claim that this will push prices up, that whole crops will fail, that we will have to import more and that people will go hungry. Note that no reference will be made to the successes of organic farming which is dismissed as a niche market.
What affect will it have on our household? Nil, nothing, zero because we neither buy pesticides soaked food or use them on our home grown produce. We are far from the rich, ‘lifestyle choosers’ that the NFU, and others, like to describe people who buy organic food. In fact we are relatively poor by today’s standards but choose to buy organic food because we don’t want to eat food that contains pesticide residues. We also grow some of our own food very successfully without using any artificial chemicals in the garden. It can be done, we can have pesticide free food, and I absolutely believe that it is a MUCH healthier way to live.
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