THE EUROPEAN UNION PASSES NEW NORMS FOR MORE SUSTAINABLE PESTICIDE USE

The maxi-amendment recently negotiated with the Council by spokesperson Christa Klass, won 624 yes votes, 13 no, and 10 abstentions in the EU Parliament, thus approving the policy that implements a framework for the realization of a more sustainable use of pesticides, in order to reduce risks and the impact on humans and the environment and to promote the use of integrated defense and alternative approaches to chemical pesticides. The measure should be applied within two years of its publication in the Official European Union Gazette (at the beginning of 2011).

The policy requests that member states adopt all of the measures necessary to give incentive to defending agriculture without the excessive use of pesticides, giving precedence whenever possible to non-chemical methods with the goal that professionals who currently use pesticides eventually adopt alternative practices or products that have a lower risk factor for humans and the environment.
It is also noted that phytosanitary defense with low pesticide use can include both integrated methods as well as organic. There is a detailed illustration of how this measure can be adopted to improve agricultural methods: crop rotation, the use of crop fertilizers, the use of resistant/tolerant “cultivars” and standard/certified seeds and materials, the use of balanced fertilizing processes, irrigation/draining, and the protection and increase of populations of useful organisms.
Within five years of the policy going into act, the member states must adopt national action plans to define their quantitative goals, the measures and the time frames for the reduction of risks and of the impact that the use of pesticides has on human and environmental health, and it must encourage the introduction and development of an integrated or organic defense system to reduce the current dependence on the use of pesticides.

These goals will affect various sectors, like, for example, the protection of workers, safeguarding the environment, the development of new and specific technologies in agriculture. It will also be necessary for member states to keep accounts of the health, social, economic, and environmental impact that these measures will have at a local, regional, and national level. The policy also obligates member states to ensure that the use of pesticides will be both reduced to a minimum or banned in specific areas like parks, public gardens, sporting fields, recreational areas, school courtyards and playgrounds, as well as in areas near hospital structures or protected lands. As well, adequate risk management measures must also be adopted, taking into primary consideration the use of low risk products or even organic methods. Member states must ensure the adoption of appropriate measures for safeguarding aquatic environments and the sources of potable water from the risk of pesticide contamination.
A “cushion zone” must be created, as well as the reduction or, if possible, the elimination of the application of pesticides along roads and railroad lines that are located near water sources.
However, Agrofarma, the national Italian association of agri-pharmaceutical enterprises under Federchimica, contested the new norm on agri-pharmaceuticals, stating it was, “uselessly penalizing because it impedes the use of phytosanitary products that have always been used. The association also noted that, “The non-use of these products will cause a substantial loss in harvests. Nomisma, in its XI Report on Agriculture, estimates losses for farmers from between 25 and 100%”. Agrofarma added that the fall in Italian agricultural production will also favor the importation of non EU agricultural products “that do not guarantee the same standards of safety and quality”. The association also criticized the new classification of substances and emphasized that “the dangerousness of substances must not be evaluated in the abstract, but based on the maximum level that can eventually be ingested together with other agricultural products consumed”.
Among other things, Agrofarma concluded that, according to the latest data released by the Italian Health Ministry, the situation is very positive. 86.4% of vegetables and 55.2% of fruit do not contain any residues at all, while 12.9% and 43.6% contain residues that still remain below dangerous limits.