'Science must determine crop protection'

A majority of the population believes that scientists should determine which plant protection products are safe and that this judgment should not be made by politicians. This is apparent from research among 1.560 Dutch people, carried out on behalf of LTO Nederland. The Dutch also believe that food from countries with lower production standards should be banned.

The government should not take the lead in assessing the safety of plant protection products, according to a large proportion of the 1.560 respondents. This group relies on the scientific judgment of the various Dutch and European authorities, such as the Board for the Authorization of Plant Protection Products and Biocides (Ctgb) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). In addition, many of the Dutch also believe that food from countries with lower standards should be banned from the shelves.

Politics interferes too much in discussion
"It is worrying that scientific judgments about plant protection products are increasingly being discussed politically. As far as we are concerned, the authorization authority, which works on the basis of scientific substantiation, is always leading. It now appears that this is also how a large part of the population views it. ", thus George Baecke, the portfolio holder for Healthy Plants at LTO Nederland. An excellent example of this situation is the European discussion on the ban on the neonicotinoids.

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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