European Parliament proposals to restrict the use of crop protection substances will lead to a further hike in food prices, Cranfield University senior lecturer in business economics Séan Rickard has warned.
Rickard’s report, published on Monday, finds that the proposals, which are predicted to remove 85 per cent of agricultural and horticultural pesticides, would lead to a doubling in retail prices for vegetables and potatoes, as well as increases in other basic items such as milk and bread.
These hikes would come on top of well-documented food price rises, already witnessed by consumers as a result of unpredictable harvest yields and growing global demand for food.
Rickard said in his report: “The recent rise in food prices has alerted politicians to the political dangers of the growing imbalance in global food markets. To date, they can fairly claim that, in large measure, food inflation is something that has been caused by events beyond their control. Such claims will not be tenable if crop protection substances are markedly restricted by legislation. As the world enters a period of uncertainty regarding its ability to feed itself, politicians in the world’s richest nations have a moral duty not only to keep the cost of food to their own populations as low as possible, but also to the world’s poor and disadvantaged, who will pay a much heavier price if the developed world’s agricultural productivity is reduced.”
Dominic Dyer, ceo of the Crop Protection Association (CPA), has called for a detailed evaluation of the effect of the proposals on the marketplace. He said: “If approved, the proposals would compound existing problems of food availability and price inflation, not just for the food supply chain but ultimately for consumers - particularly those on lower incomes.
“We need our policy makers to conduct a full impact assessment, including the impact on crop yields and, consequently, food supply and prices.”
Even the least restrictive set of proposals put forward by the European Commission would reduce UK food production by at least 25 per cent, he calculates, and the notion that greater areas of land could be ploughed up for farming to redress the losses would not be environmentally sustainable.
The CPA and its partners across the food supply chain have called for the assessment to be carried out by the European Commission before final decisions are made, to make sure any legislation carries real benefits for society and the environment.
Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), has been briefing members of the European Parliament on the lack of such an assessment of the EU proposals to introduce cut-off criteria and substitution of crop protection products on a risk-based approach. In response to MEPs’ questions, the European Commission stated: “The commission did not conduct an assessment of the impact of the criteria on food production and farmers because, at the time of its original proposal, it was not possible to anticipate which substances would remain on the market at the end of the review.”
Jenney said: “There is a fundamental flaw in the decision-making process. The FPC is calling on the European Parliament to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the impact of these proposals. In the absence of this evaluation, we believe the European Parliament should reject these proposals at their second reading in October.”
The FPC is calling on the trade in the UK to lobby MEPs and MPs urgently, and to use international contacts to raise awareness in the UK and abroad of the severe impact of the proposals before October’s second reading.
No comments yet