Pesticide Ban Could Backfire: KAP
Written by Kelvin Heppner | |
Friday, 24 February 2012 | |
Doug Chorney
The province's planned cosmetic pesticide ban will likely not have its intended effect, says the president of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
"We want the province to step back and look at the goal they're trying to achieve, which is an environment that has less pesticide use, and what this ban will achieve," says Doug Chorney. "What I've experienced in our area where we grow forage grass seed, dandelion infestations from urban neighbours can be a real problem, and we end up spraying a lot more often than you would had they been controlled in the first place." "The government needs to think about their objective and what they're really going to achieve," he says. When it comes to pesticide application in urban areas, Chorney suggests the province should rather issue licenses to qualified applicators. "There's a lot of good science to support measures for the safety of applicants and proper use of weed control products," says Chorney. "But where there are concerns about misuse of the product I think a more practical approach would be having licensed applicators responsible for using it in urban areas." "When you have individuals with no experience using crop protection products, applying them without any concern for the proper rate, certainly that's a concern," he says. Producers in Ontario have expressed frustration with their province's pesticide legislation, says Chorney. "The way the law has been set up in Ontario a farmer can do weed control on his field, but can't use it on his lawn, even though his yard is in a rural setting. It really doesn't any sense when it comes to pesticide load in the environment," he says. "What you have are all these yards that are polluted with weeds." Conservation Minister Gord Mackintosh says the province will hold consultations this spring, with changes likely being introduced next spring. |
via PortageOnline.com – Agriculture for Portage La Prairie, MB.