Rather predictable howls of protest from organic lobbyists greeted the recent decision to allow the temporary use of neonic seed dressings on sugar beet crops this year to protect against virus yellows disease.“It is not credible to claim an exemption is temporary or emergency when it is used year after year. How many years will bans of these harmful chemicals be overridden?” fumed the Soil Association’s head of farming policy, Gareth Morgan.“People in glass houses…” was the saying that immediately sprang to mind. Perhaps he had temporarily forgotten that similar exemptions have been permitted year after year for organic growers to spray banned copper blight fungicides on potatoes? Or that as recently as 2020 the Soil Association urged members to lobby Defra Ministers to ignore the Expert Committee on Pesticides’ scientific advice that such products pose serious environmental concerns due to their acute aquatic toxicity?
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