Simona Caselli comments on the EU draft regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides and on the role of the AREFLH

 

Simona Caselli, president of AREFLH, spoke on 8th September 2022, to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere Ortofrutticolo about the draft European regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides.

In the article she explains that it is essential to fight climate change, but at the same time production must be strongly supported to avoid food shortages, price hikes and humanitarian disasters.

"The proposal presented by the Commission last June to amend the directive on the sustainable use of pesticides is completely inconsistent, as the calculation mechanisms envisaged are making it unrealistic and practically impossible to achieve the reduction targets set out in the Farm to Fork strategy, in addition to being in flagrant contradiction with the objective of developing organic farming and certainly in contradiction with the need to increase production to guarantee food security.

Later in the article she writes: "Those who know me well know that I am a strong supporter of the development of organic farming, that I have always been in favour of reducing the use of pesticides and that I support the Farm to Fork Strategy as a whole. And it is precisely because I believe that it is essential to make progress on sustainability, that I cannot accept the idea of implementing this strategy with unworkable, unrealistic, unmanageable and unsustainable measures, because this would ultimately mean making it fail."

In the article Simona Caselli demonstrates that the sector is faced with a clear contradiction between the measures and the EU's objectives and that this must be corrected as soon as possible.

Amendments to the draft regulation must be presented by 12 September. Simona Caselli announced that "it is therefore necessary that all the representatives of the sector, the APOs and the production world in general commit themselves to their respective governments to propose corrective measures that are supported by credible data. The European Parliament's Agriculture Committee is well aware of the problem and MEP Paolo De Castro has already talked publicly to denounce the "schizophrenic" attitude of the European Commission.”

Thus, the AREFLH is tackling the issue thanks to the commitment of the services of its member regions and the technicians of the APOs of its College of Producers. “We are currently preparing a reply to the public consultation on the regulation on the sustainable use of pestides. Moreover, on September 28, we have an appointment with the officials of the DG SANTE who follow the measure in order to support our proposals.”

 

Read the full original article on the Corriere Ortofrutticolo website (in Italian)

Read a translation of the full article from Google Translate (note that this automatic translation may contain interpretation errors)

 

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