Archived press release

New Tax Could Cut Pesticide Use

4 December 2003

Friends of the Earth is calling on the Chancellor to make a clear commitment in his Pre-Budget Report next week to introduce a tax on pesticide products to encourage a reduction in pesticide use. The tax should be used to support sustainable farming.

Currently a "Voluntary Initiative" exists, introduced by the pesticide industry with the aim of cutting environmental impacts of pesticide use. But as Friends of the Earth has pointed out, this has failed to make any real progress over the last three years. The environmental group is calling on the Government to introduce a package of regulatory and fiscal measures to reduce pesticide use and tackle impacts, with the tax fed straight back into farming, raising a potential 130 million a year. Friends of the Earth believes the money should be used to fund more research and development into alternative non-chemical means of pest and disease control (areas where budgets have been cut) and to set up an independent advisory service for farmers.

Three years ago the Government gave the pesticides industry the opportunity to work with farmers to reduce the environmental impacts of pesticides, as an alternative to a pesticides tax, but made it clear that if the voluntary approach did not work, a tax would remain an option. Last year the Environmental Audit Committee criticized the Voluntary Initiative and challenged it to deliver real progress. Friends of the Earth, together with the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), have produced an assessment of the Voluntary Initiative [1], which shows it has failed to make any significant contribution to reducing the use or impacts of pesticides.

Friends of the Earth pesticides campaigner Sandra Bell said:

"It is crystal clear that the Voluntary Initiative is not going to deliver the reductions in pesticide use and environmental impacts the Government is looking for. It is time to look for an alternative. A pesticides tax, introduced at the next budget as part of a package of measures, would cut pesticide use and encourage the use of safer alternatives. But to be effective it is absolutely essential that the money goes straight back into farming to help farmers get off the chemical treadmill."

Friends of the Earth and PAN's assessment found:

• The Voluntary Initiative has not reduced the overall use of pesticides or lead to safer alternatives being found. Instead it concentrates on best practice in storing and handling pesticides on the farm.

• It does nothing to tackle residues in food. The latest government figures released today [2] show that residues over safety limits have turned up in UK potatoes and lettuce.

• Reduction targets have been weakened to make them easier to meet and some measures have had to be made compulsory by inclusion in Farm Assurance Schemes to improve take up.

• Despite the resources put into projects to reduce water pollution in particular river catchment areas, these have not succeeded. Farmers in the Cherwell catchment area were recently told there is still a problem with the herbicide IPU. In catchments where pollution incidents went down (Leam and Blythe) it was found that this was due to wet weather preventing farmers from spraying pesticides rather than any changes in practice.

• The Voluntary Initiative's emphasis on changing farmyard practices to reduce water pollution, rather than looking at the contribution of the herbicide applied to the crop, is based on one study of the use of one herbicide on one farm. The Initiative's interpretation of the study is questionable since it clearly demonstrated how wet weather immediately after spraying can cause significant run off from fields with resulting pollution of the river.

• Unfair costs are being passed on to farmers for the disposal of pesticide products which pesticide companies have decided not to keep on the market.

In contrast, other EU countries have succeeded in cutting pesticide use by using a package of regulatory and fiscal measures. In Sweden the quantity of active ingredients sold between 1991 and 1995 was reduced by 61% and by a further 60% between 1996 and 2000. In Denmark, the provision of an independent farmer advisory service has been crucial in supporting farmers to reduce the frequency of application of chemical pesticides, achieving results with no economic loss to farmers.

Friends of the Earth is calling for the following package of regulatory measures:

• Mandatory sprayer operator registration.
• Mandatory spray equipment testing.
• Bans on the most risky pesticides.

Changes to the regulatory process to enable non-chemical products to
be assessed in an appropriate manner rather than under the same
process as chemicals [3].

Fiscal measures should include:

• A banded tax on pesticides products to discourage the use of the most
  problematic pesticides (covering a range of problems from high
  toxicity to soil mobility) and to raise funds for measures to support
  farmers in finding non-chemical alternatives.
• Support for farmers should include:
  A free independent sustainable farming advisory service for farmers.
  Increased R&D into non-chemical means of pest and disease control.
• Changes to the remit of the government’s Pesticides Safety Directorate
  (PSD):
  
  • PSD should become responsible for pest management, not solely chemical
    pesticide approvals.

Notes

[1] Friends of the Earth and Pesticides Action Network UK, Submission
to the Environmental Audit Committee on the Pesticides Voluntary
Initiative, December 2003

[2] See:
www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/pesticides_still_in_apples.html

[3] See
www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/breaking_the_pesticide_chain.pdf (PDF†)

For Friends of the Earth’s full pre-budget briefing see:
www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/pre_budget_2003_media_briefing.pdf (PDF†)

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust