Agriculture braced for ‘cosmetic’ pesticide ban fallout

Apr 21 2008

Farm groups say Ontario Minister of Agriculture Leona Dombrowsky has given an “ironclad guarantee” that agriculture will be exempt when the province, under pressure from environmental groups, moves to ban the use of pesticides from lawns and gardens this spring.
They are still worried, however, that inevitably consumers will question the benefits of crop protection products because science has been taken out of the equation. The anticipated law banning pesticide use for “cosmetic” purposes might be introduced to the legislature as early as Earth Day, Apr. 22.
“We’ve been reassured that our exemption from this proposed ban is ironclad. That’s fine for the short term,” says Jackie Fraser, executive director of AgCare. “We are concerned about the public’s attitude towards pesticide use in general.”
At an Ontario Federation of Agriculture directors meeting in Toronto last week, Peter MacLeod, vice president of CropLife Canada, a pesticide maker lobby group, revealed the results of surveys conducted last fall and again this spring. MacLeod says the surveys show a disturbing trend: consumer concern about the use of pesticides in food production is growing.
The CropLife polls conducted last fall found 61 per cent opposed the use of these products on lawns and gardens and 31 per cent opposed pesticide use on farms. Only 13 per cent of those polled thought their use is vital to growing crops.
In another poll taken earlier this spring for CropLife, 56 per cent said regulations should be the same for farm/urban environments and 64 per cent said pesticides should be banned from all uses.
Fraser hasn’t seen the figures or the questions asked in the CropLife polls. She is worried about governments making public policy decisions based upon uninformed public opinion. The term ‘pesticide’ alone “has a negative connotation,” she says.
MacLeod asserts there is no science that shows pesticides are a health hazard when they are used properly.
“We are concerned about taking science out of the regulatory system,” says Fraser.She has not seen details of the surveys conducted by Croplife Canada. “We’re also concerned from an innovation stand point,” Fraser says. She wonders if going to be an investment in new technologies in Canada if developing companies see the science based view in Canada “as softening.”
“We are very concerned with this proposed ban. We see it as an issue that is going to affect agriculture ultimately.”
Twenty years ago AgCare started promoting mandatory training for farmers spraying crops. This is being held up as the reason that agriculture is now exempt from a pesticide ban. Fraser says AgCare’s position is that consumers should also be training in the use of lawn and garden pest controls, “instead of banning products that, frankly, people can use safely.”
Pesticides are regulated by the federal government. Nonetheless, municipal bans on weed and other pest spraying have been popping up like dandelions on a lawn. The cities of Hamilton and St. Catharines moved to ban spraying last fall. Stratford banned pesticides earlier this month.
All of these bans take effect in the spring of 2009. BF