Don’t blame it on sunshine or moonlight … Don’t blame it on good times (remember them?) … Don’t even blame it on the boogie. Blame it on the precautionary principle….[I]ts misuse is almost wholly responsible for many of the anti-scientific decisions made in the EU….
[T]he precautionary principle states that if there is any doubt over the safety of a product which has not been scientifically proven, but can reasonably be assumed, that product should not be approved. [B]ut….the process is ‘inevitably judgmental’ so if, for instance, you have a Green MEP (Bart Staes) using the precautionary principle to co-write a report on the EU’s authorization procedure for pesticides, you can be fairly sure that he is going to try and ban as many as possible….…
The problem with this is, not doing something can often be worse than doing it….[EU farmers] have lost more than half of the PPPs available….since 2001….Contrary to what you might think, this….will lead directly to an increased use of fossil fuels based on the need to cultivate more land to produce the same amount of crop and the loss of the ability to reduce tillage if glyphosate is banned.
Read full, original article: Agriculture is a victim of caution
