Sustainable Harborough Community
Pesticides – friend or foe?
Apparently, another name for pesticides is plant protection products!
What kind of protection to plants are they? According to the Government Health & Safety Executive, their purpose is to keep pests, diseases and weeds under control. They can be herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and more. (hse.gov.uk/pesticides/about-pesticides.htm) There can be other substances too to make them more effective.
The big question is – are they harmful?
The Soil Association and Friends of the Earth both say a resounding YES!
The Soil Association believes that the use of these substances is increasing. As they are being used in combinations, it’s a system that hasn’t been monitored properly, only as single substances, so if harm is being caused, it’s not been researched. http://www.soilassociation.org/causes-campaigns/reducing-pesticides/the-pesticide-problem/
Friends of the Earth research lists how widespread pesticide use has become. As well as in farming, pesticides are used in horticulture and our gardens, in parks, sports and school grounds, golf courses and roadsides. For long years, it was thought that their use was essential. It is now being recognised that this isn’t true and that they are actually harmful to the soil, its inhabitants, and birds and insects that feed on them.(policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2019-12/)
Can villages and towns and cities manage without them? According to Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN) www.pan-uk.org, every town and city in France and Belgium has managed without them for years! Some towns and cities in the UK are now using non-chemical alternatives too.
Pesticides used by farmers may leave traces of their pesticides in or on our fruit and vegetables. They are knowns as residues and thankfully, our government monitors them. The only problem is that they only monitor one residue at a time when farmers use several and research is showing that they become more toxic in combinations.
HELP!
Julie Fagan, volunteer, Sustainable Harborough Community and Eco Churches
Former Trustees of KCH Return
