While awaiting the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, PAN Europe warned on Tuesday, 21 April, that systemic failures in Europe’s pesticide risk assessment process are compromising the ambition to achieve sustainable agriculture and a green recovery post-COVID-19 (see EUROPE 12467/12).
The NGO bases this on a new publication by a group of experts in law, policy, and toxicology, which appeared in the European Journal of Risk Regulation and reveals that the EU’s regulatory authorities are failing to enforce its ‘Pesticides’ regulation (1107/2009).
The study points out widespread misuse and misinterpretation of scientific research and calls for radical reform to rectify these issues: specifically, a wider use of systematic review methods to ensure objectivity and transparency when evaluating the results of scientific research, as well as the use of the weight-of-evidence approach to integrate different sources of evidence.
“Risk reduction cannot happen unless the risk assessment is done properly”, comments one of the authors, Dr Angeliki Lyssimachou, from PAN Europe.
The future ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy will aim to ensure a fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly food system and will include “measures to significantly reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides”.
It will be published at the same time as the conclusions of the REFIT evaluation of the regulation.
To read the study: https://bit.ly/2VlZekT (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)