At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture (see previous posts below), we spoke to Ariel Brunner, BirdLife International’s EU Agriculture Policy Officer, about the importance of farmers having the right knowledge when applying technology, and the ways in which farmers can acquire this knowledge (he talks about training, incentives and regulation). He highlights that, [...]

At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture, which we attended last week (see previous post below), we spoke to Neil Parish, a Member of the European Parliament, where he is Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
Please click on the video below to hear Mr Parish’s views on the reduction of pesticides [...]

At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture, organised jointly by Syngenta and the European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) last week, we spoke to Alexander Sarris, Director in the Commodities and Trade Division at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
He gave us some insights into the role of technology in agriculture, the productivity gap that [...]

The Salon de l’Agriculture in Paris is a massive event. Spread across several halls, you’ll find literally anything and everything to do with agriculture. The French public love this annual exhibition too with thousands of families attending each day.
PI team visited the fruit and vegetable hall to find out what the French public thought of [...]

Last week the European Commission announced the completion of its review of pesticides that were on the market before 1993. The review looked at about 1000 substances used in conventional and organic agriculture. In their press statement, the Commission said that the pesticides “have undergone a detailed risk evaluation with respect to their effects on [...]

As promised, here’s a summary of various reports and comments we’ve found online recently discussing the disappearance of honey bees in Europe and America:
Hopes rise in puzzle of dying bees (Delaware Online)
Don’t blame amateur keepers for declining bees (Guardian.co.uk)
‘No proof’ of bee killer theory (BBC)
Haagen-Dazs makes second gift for honeybee research and education (Penn State [...]

In the next day or two we’ll be publishing some video conversations we had with French farmers and the general public about their views on pesticides at the Salon de l’Agriculture in Paris last week. In the meantime Pesticide Information has set up a Twitter account to share the latest content published online that we [...]