After two years of debate, the European Union’s (EU) agriculture ministers have approved stricter controls on the use of crop protection products. And yet the battle continues.
According to the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), the EU plans to impose stricter controls on the use of pesticides will ban chemicals essential to Scottish farming.
The National Famers Union of Scotland said its members must be allowed to use pesticides to overcome the country’s wet climate. The organization will lobby the MEPs (members of the European Parliament) who are due to vote on the proposed restrictions later this year.
The package would force growers to abandon substances found to be toxic to humans. Pesticides would no longer be approved nationally, but regionally. Hungary, the Irish Republic, Romania and the UK abstained from the vote.
Many MEPs have called for even tougher controls on pesticides, which means the package may be amended by the parliament.
