Now safely ensconced at Queen’s Park for another four years, Ontario’s Liberal government seems keen to move ahead with its proposed cosmetic ban of pesticides. Out of the many promises they made during last fall’s election campaign, this one seems to be one of the least pressing.
On the surface, a pesticide ban is probably relatively easy to implement and potentially popular with voters. But although there’s been talk of an exemption for agriculture, the ban does nothing for the farming community.
Ontario farmers have long been responsible users of pesticides. In fact, all farmers buying and using pesticides must be trained and certified in their use every five years through the Grower Pesticide Safety Course. That program was developed over twenty years ago at the request of farmers who recognized that the inherent problem with pesticides was not their use, but their irresponsible use.
A study released in 2007 called Caring for the Land showed that farmers had voluntarily reduced pesticide use by more than 50% in recent years. Other accomplishments on the environment front include collectively spending more than 300,000 days in environmental training, and investing over half a billion dollars in on-farm environmental improvements.
If the government is going to look at the pesticide issue, the agricultural community should be involved in the process. There are certainly alternatives to an out-right ban, and who better to provide advice and ideas than farmers who are leaders in responsible use and environmental stewardship?
AGCare, an environmental awareness coalition representing 45,000 Ontario fruit, vegetable and field crop farmers, has been leading agriculture on this issue. Follow their progress on www.agcare.org.
