[Editor’s note: Robert de Graeff is senior policy officer for the European Landowners’ Organization.]
It is fair to say that pesticides and the industry producing them are not much loved by many in Europe today. But our members depend on both these products and companies, and the crop protection choices made every day, on every farm, literally end up on our plate. The fact is that those choices are becoming more limited because increasing regulation means it now takes between five and 11 years and around €200 million for any new products to come on the market. That is an absurdly long and costly timeframe and it is leaving our members increasingly short of tools to combat the real threats to food safety and supply: pests, diseases and weeds. For European farmers, the cupboard is getting bare at exactly the moment when pressure to produce sustainably and in abundance is growing.
It is this background that brings urgency to the current agri-mergers (Dow/Dupont, Syngenta/ChemChina, and Bayer/Monsanto). … Our members recognise that without the scale that comes from merging, the companies we depend upon for crop protection products may not be able to bring to market the new and innovative products we need.
Related on the SLP
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Pesticide bans are catch-22 for landowners
