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Science calls for ambitious European pesticide policies

Nature Food volume 4, page 272 (2023)Cite this article

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The heavy use of pesticides in agriculture is strongly linked to severe declines in biodiversity both above- and below-soil, with cascading impacts on terrestrial, aquatic and marine systems as well as detrimental impacts on global public health and well-being1,2. Reducing the risks of pesticide use is a key leverage point to address the biodiversity crisis as agreed during the United Nations Biodiversity Summit (COP15) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The European Commission has taken a leading role in efforts to curb pesticides by adopting a 50% reduction target of use and risks by 2030 in its Farm to Fork Strategy3. In 2022, the European Commission proposed a Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation to enshrine this target into legislation4, as well as to mandate member states to invest in integrated pest management and ban pesticides from sensitive areas.

Against these efforts, a large number of European Union (EU) member state governments and members of the European Parliament have recently called for the delay and/or watering down of the new pesticide regulation. These calls are based on claims for impacts on ‘food security’ and ‘resilience’, especially in the light of the implications of the Ukraine war5. Citing pressures on global markets caused by the war, politicians have successfully called for an additional impact assessment to the one already performed by the European Commission. This delays the legislative process until just before the next European Parliament elections in 2024. This may damage the momentum of the Green Deal and hamper the much-needed efforts to urgently address the rapid declines in the state of the environment and human health. Meanwhile, political arguments to avoid more ambitious pesticide policies disregard the mounting evidence that climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss constitute the main threats to the EU’s longer-term agricultural production potential6.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Public Administration and Policy Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Jeroen Candel

  2. Department of Ecosystem Services, UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany

    Guy Pe’er

  3. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Guy Pe’er

  4. Agricultural Economics and Policy Group, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Robert Finger

Authors
  1. Jeroen Candel
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  2. Guy Pe’er
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  3. Robert Finger
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jeroen Candel or Robert Finger.

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Competing interests

J.C. is a member of Dutch Council on Animal Affairs and a member of the supervisory board of the Transitiecoalitie Voedsel foundation. R.F. and G.P. declare no competing interests.

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Candel, J., Pe’er, G. & Finger, R. Science calls for ambitious European pesticide policies. Nat Food 4, 272 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00727-8

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