Forty European health insurers press EU to regulate phase out of agricultural chemicals by midcentury

Forty health insurance mutuals from France, Belgium and Poland have jointly called on the EU not to abandon the goal of halving pesticide use by the end of the decade and to achieve pesticide-free agriculture by the middle of the century. The organizations made the call during an event at the European Parliament [recently.]

Forget all the fuss about glyphosate and other active ingredients in commercial pesticides. EU and national agrochemical regulations fail to adequately regulate the co-formulants that make up much of the rest of the products farmers use in the field, and many of these chemicals remain trade secrets, writes Edward Straw, a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, in a new column for the Irish Farmers Journal.

[Additionally,] France’s Agriculture Ministry opened applications on [April 12] for research projects to reduce or replace the use of pesticides, pledging another €50 million through the — brace yourself — “Plan to better anticipate the potential European withdrawal of active substances and development of crop protection alternatives” (PARSADA in French). That extends PARSADA’s funding to nearly €150 million for this year.

…

Further active substances are also moving through the regulatory pipeline, under review by capitals before their evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). These include “innovations like peptides, Ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) substances, or bacteriophages,” [EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides] said.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here (behind paywall)