A lack of clarity about pesticide use and GMOs in Europe is storing up global problems, according to one of the pollsters in a lively debate on freshinfo this week with respondents split right down the middle.

Commenting on the question “Can the UK persuade the rest of Europe to take a stronger stance against EU proposals to restrict pesticide availability?” industry consultant Brian McGillivray said: “This resolution if passed is going to have major implications across agriculture in the future. We sit on the fence when it comes to GM as we are comfortably well fed. One of the benefits of GM breeding has seen the reduction of pesticide usage. We have a double standard as we are quite prepared to see GMOs applied for medicinal purposes. This constitutes 25 per cent of all new drugs in the US and Europe. Our mixed messages cause world-wide problems with African countries taking the brunt of this as they follow the European lead. In a world of ever increasing population, we need more than ever the appliance of science.”

Another pollster agreed. “The industry needs to change and update with the rest of the industries around the world,” the anonymous contributor wrote. “Talking of the good old days is now long behind us.”

But retail technologists also came in for some flak. “It is not the public causing the confusion, but the…technical departments that have to come up with standards to justify their wages,” said another pollster. “To reduce pesticides we need to be able to work with GM crops and many people don’t want us to do this.”

Another contributor agreed: “Growers have got their backs to the wall because not enough people realise that by imposing these restrictions we will have scarring on fruit and conservation problems, hence quality issues…technicians don’t get out enough to see the real difficulty on the ground with far-fetched specs and unrealistic restrictions on pesticides…we need to revamp this generation of technicians.”

And the specifications themselves were criticised by one European pollster.

“The UK standards for fruit and veg are so stupid that that is what pushed growers to over-use chemicals to get perfect produce,” the nameless contributor said. “All over Europe people laugh at the UK about the type of produce required: green tomatoes, green Golden Delicious and soft fruit that should be changed to hard fruit.”