Progress in battles with ‘icide’ family
My son sometimes describes my job as waking up in the morning, starting arguments on social media, and spending the rest of the day stretching these arguments out until sleep time.
Indeed, as the first of the argument-causing tweets and facebook posts are pre-programmed from the night before, they arrive into people’s phones for 6 or 7am, causing a few spluttery cornflake spews, general exasperation and angry ripostes, all while I’m still tucked up in my bed.
Nevertheless, and despite some evidence to the contrary, this columnist remains of a cheery disposition. And despite everything, there are still many reasons to be cheerful.
What’s making this columnist smile this week? It’s the Harrington Seed Destructor.
Australian tillage farmer Ray Harrington has
invented a machine that destroys 95% of weed seeds during harvest. It pulverises them until they are no longer capable of germination.
This means that when the chaff is returned to the land, very few viable weed seeds are re-introduced.
A dozen or so of these new machines are being sold each month down under.
The potential to reduce herbicide use is significant, a timely invention just as the European Citizen’s Initiative to ban glyphosate passed the one million signatures mark, the number required to potentially compel the European Commission to consider legislation on the matter.
While the Commission’s record on these initiatives is not especially good (it tends to find a way to ignore them, this petition will bolster the forces pushing to restrict glyphosate.
The EU meanwhile moved a step closer to a more comprehensive ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, despite the best efforts of Tory MEP Julie Girling, whose motion in the European Parliament’s environment committee opposed plans to extend restrictions on use of three neonicotinoids, partially banned in 2013.
The vote in the environment committee was 42 against her motion, and seven or eight in favour,
depending on the specific pesticide in question.
However EU regulators still seem beholden to the agri-business lobby. Since 2013, so-called emergency
requests for use of neonicotinoids have never been refused. In fact, according to the Politico news agency, 13 European governments have provided farmers and pesticide producers with permission to sidestep neonicotinoid regulations.
Whatever about the failings of the regulatory process, the recent European Parliament vote on pesticides in Ecological Focus Areas was a major and somewhat unexpected achievement. Though the figures are difficult to calculate precisely, and there are many variables that are hard to fully account for, it seems about 10% of all arable land in the EU will now be free of biocidal products. This is change on a significant scale.
And despite the fact that only 1.5% of the EU’s CAP budget goes to organic farming ( according to IFOAM EU calculations), many a westerly organic farmer on wet land will welcome funds being put to good use via the European Innovation Partnership, with potential funding for control of rushes
reported in this paper earlier this month.
And “Maximising organic production through integrated cropping systems” was another of the 22 shortlisted EIP projects.
While all 22 will be funded to develop a detailed project plan, only some will be
selected for full implementation.
With the kinds of restrictions coming downstream from Europe, it could be in every farmer’s interest (organic and conventional) to work out how to manage rushes and other plants in the wrong place at the wrong time, without members of the ‘icide’ family to help.
OK, now that I’m in such a good mood, it’s time to tee up some thought-provoking tweets for my online friends.
