Archived press release

Pre-Budget Statement: Missed Opportunity to Cut Pesticide Use

10 December 2003

Friends of the Earth described today's pre-budget report as a missed opportunity to cut pesticide use and reduce their environmental impacts. Friends of the Earth had called on the Chancellor to make a clear commitment to introduce a pesticide tax to encourage a reduction in pesticide use and to raise money to support sustainable farming.

Today's pre-budget report recognised the need to do more to tackle environmental problems caused by the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Cleaning up pesticides from drinking water indirectly costs the taxpayer more than 100 million a year. But the Government stopped short of committing to a pesticide tax. Instead the Chancellor said the Government will continue to monitor the progress of the voluntary initiative on pesticides [1], and consult next year on how best to tackle water pollution from farming, including a consideration of the pros and cons of economic instruments.

While the consultation is to be welcomed, Friends of the Earth believes there is already clear evidence that a combination of regulatory and fiscal measures are needed to tackle the problems arising from pesticide use. The voluntary initiative is failing to tackle the environmental impacts of pesticides [2] including water pollution incidents. Despite a significant input of resources into particular water catchments, pesticide pollution incidents continue [3].

Friends of the Earth has criticised the `Voluntary Initiative's' emphasis on changing farmyard practices to reduce water pollution rather than looking at the cause. The Voluntary Initiative (VI) is based on the Cherwell study [4] which looked at the use of one herbicide on one farm. This interpretation is questionable since the study clearly showed how wet weather immediately after spraying can cause significant run off from fields, resulting in river pollution.

Friends of the Earth pesticides campaigner Sandra Bell said:

"The Government has once again ducked out of committing to a pesticides tax. Instead it continues to indulge the pesticides industry by giving the `Voluntary Initiative' more time. It is clear that the Voluntary Initiative is not going to enable farmers to deliver the reductions in pesticide use and environmental impacts the Government is looking for. A pesticides tax, as part of a package of measures, would cut pesticide use and encourage the use of safer alternatives.It could also raise money to put back into farming to help farmers get off the chemical treadmill."

Friends of the Earth has also criticized the VI for passing on unfair costs to farmers for the disposal of pesticide products. The group believes the pesticides industry should pay for the safe disposal of products which have been taken off the market by the pesticide company or because the industry has failed to ensure that their products meet health and environmental standards.

Friends of the Earth 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.

The approach has worked in other countries. 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.

Notes

[1] 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 deliverreal progress.

[2] Friends of the Earth, together with the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), have produced an assessment of the Voluntary Initiative, which shows it has failed to make any significant contribution to reducing the use or impacts of pesticides.

[3] 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.

[4] Further details on the Cherwell study are available from Friends of the Earth.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust