Save the bees. Save the trees.

This is the government's response but what does it amount to?

A huge change has taken place to British farming over the past fifty years or so - in fact a second Agrarian Revolution. About half the traditional family farms have been replaced by big conglomerates. Farming has become intensive and dependant on oil for mechanisation and chemicals with a consequent disastrous toll on nature by every indices. This transformation has gone on hardly observed or criticised as long as the supermarket shelves have remained stocked. The process should not be viewed in isolation but as part of wider economic and environmental trends. As usual, what is promoted as 'green' and ecological, is often just a front for something that has the quite opposite effect. Just within a mile radius I can think of seven or eight family mixed farms that have packed up, to be replaced by a large contractor reliant on Polish and Lithuanian workers. As I walked past the other day I counted about thirty huge modern tractors in their fleet, each costing upwards of a hundred thousand pounds. The land and nature has suffered as a result but the die seems to have been cast. The Dutch farmers are right to be worried by misplaced philosophies and misapplied polices. Perhaps the public and consumers should worry too?

The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Save the bees: cut hazardous pesticides and support nature-friendly farming”.

Government responded:

The Government is committed to developing and implementing policies that support sustainable crop protection with the minimum use of pesticides.

The Government's landmark Environment Act 2021 commits to halting the decline in biodiversity by 2030. Developing and implementing policies that support sustainable crop protection with the minimum use of pesticides, while ensuring pests and pesticide resistance are managed effectively, will play an important role in achieving this as well as safeguarding food security.

As set out in the Agricultural Transition Plan, by 2028 we want to see a renewed agricultural sector, producing healthy food for consumption at home and abroad, where farms can be profitable and economically sustainable without subsidy. We also want to see farming and the countryside contributing significantly to environmental goals, including addressing climate change.

The National Action Plan (NAP) for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides, to be published later this year, will set out measures for increasing the uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and sustainable crop protection across agriculture, amenity and amateur sectors. IPM is a holistic approach which carefully considers all available plant protection methods, including increasing the use of nature-based, low toxicity solutions and precision technologies. We are working with farmers and stakeholders to develop new incentives under the future farming programme’s Sustainable Farming Incentive to support the uptake of IPM for introduction in 2023.

We have been assessing the role of targets, as well as the benefits and challenges of developing them, to support the ambitions of the final NAP. Improving indicators and establishing baselines is an important first step to ensure that goals are meaningful, measurable and drive positive change.

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Click this link to view the response online:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/618926?reveal_response=yes

The Petitions Committee will take a look at this petition and its response. They can press the government for action and gather evidence. If this petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the Committee will consider it for a debate.

The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. Find out more about the Committee: https://petition.parliament.uk/help#petitions-committee

Thanks,
The Petitions team
UK Government and Parliament