Increase organics: reduce pesticides
Subject: Increase organics: reduce pesticides........................
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 12:49:11 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read the following article:
Increase organics: reduce pesticides The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is calling for a pesticide reduction strategy for the UK in support of organic agriculture. PAN UK will join the Organic Rally calling on parliament to ensure that 30 per cent of UK agricultural land is organic by 2010, and that organic action plan is put in place.
In Sweden, a progressive risk reduction programme succeeded in cutting pesticide use by 68 per cent since its launch in 1986. While short of its 75 per cent target for absolute reduction, a new study from the Swedish National Chemicals Inspectorate found that reduction in the use of pesticides with health risks have exceeded targets. Use of these pesticides has been reduced by 77 per cent over the 15 years.1
By contrast, the UK ‘pesticide minimisation’ approach has established no targets for reducing pesticide use and risks. Organic farmers avoid using hazardous pesticides, while mainstream farming is still using many pesticides suspected of causing cancer.
The most widely-used herbicide in the UK (isoproturon), used to treat around 3.5 million hectares of farmland, 2 is listed as a possible carcinogen by the European Union. Of the five most extensively used fungicides in the UK, three of them, chlorothalonil, tebucanazole and carbendazim, are possible or likely carcinogens.
Other pesticides which are suspected causing cancer are commonly found as residues in food. Malathion occurs as a residue in bread, imazalil, oxadixyl and thiabendazole in potatoes. Carbaryl, dimethoate and phosmet occur in apples. Lettuce is a cocktail of such suspected carcinogens, with residues of acephate, carbendazim, dimethoate, folpet, iprodione, oxadixyl, procymidone, and tebuconazole recorded in annual figures for 1999. 2
Barbara Dinham of PAN UK said: “We cannot achieve an organic target unless the government adopts a progressive policy to reduce the current levels of pesticide use. We need to prioritise and restrict high-risk pesticides at the same time as increase support for the safer alternative that organic farming offers.”
Lindane Campaign website launched at Organic Rally Lindane is the last highly persistent pesticide used to any great extent in Western Europe. Following a campaign by PAN UK, Friends of the Earth, the Soil Association, Women’s Environment Network, UNISON and Green Network, lindane will be phased out for agricultural and horticultural use throughout the European Union. But lindane is still used in agriculture in other countries. To support global action for safer alternatives to lindane, PAN UK will launch its lindane website at the Organic Rally. The website will provide regular information, and guidance on action consumers can take encourage to register their concerns with pesticides. www.banlindane.org
Contacts Barbara Dinham, Director, PAN UK: 020 7274 8895 (Mobile 07950 414244) David Buffin, UK and European Policy, PAN UK: 020 7274 8895 (Mobile 07880 700428)
Notes 1 Pesticides in Swedish agriculture 1986-2000, Pesticides News 54, December 2001. 2 Pesticide Usage Survey Report 159 Arable farm crops in Great Britain 1998, Central Science Laboratory.
Well Mr. Helliker, Martin Luther King, Jr. once noted: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." I would like to note we will never be able to reduce (to any real degree) the amount of registered pesaticide POISON use/misuse until you will allow the "legal" use of safe and far more effective unregistered alternatives. Where do you stand?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
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