Just at a time when the world’s food supply is shifting into shortage, when food prices are rocketing and agricultural commodity prices sky-high, when the costs of farming inputs like diesel are shooting up, and when policymakers are creating new demands for bio-fuels, up pops the EU Commission with a plan for a dramatic reduction in crop yields. Yes. You read that right. A reduction. The word “Perverse” might have been coined just for this initiative.
The Commission has given in to pressure from various alarmist green lobbies to introduce draconian bans on commonly-used pesticides and herbicides, many of which have been in use perfectly safely for decades. After all, say the bureaucrats, there may be no evidence of harm, but there could be potential problems that we don’t know about yet. This is the EU’s infamous Precautionary Principle. If something could be dangerous, assume it is, and ban it. On this basis we might well ban getting out of bed in the morning. Or crossing the road.
The European parliament, true to form, took some bad proposals from the Commission and made them worse. After all, you get cheap headlines by saying “MEPs vote to increase consumer protection”, if you don’t happen to mention the effect on food prices and availability. Too often, MEPs revel in the exercise of power without responsibility.
We don’t know of any harm caused by these substances, but we know an awful lot about the harm caused by banning them. The UK government’s prestigious Pesticide Safety Directorate (PSD) has published a damning report on the parliament’s proposals, saying they could reduce the availability of pesticides by up to 85%. PSD concludes that if the parliament’s proposals were implemented, “conventional agriculture in the UK (and much of the EC) … would not be achievable, with major impacts on crop yields and food quality”. There will certainly be double-digit percentage reductions in yields, with some estimates of losses up to 50%.
And the worst irony of all is that these measure would force production offshore, to jurisdictions with less rigorous rules and controls, and we should end up eating imported food with higher pesticide residues. So the consequences of the EU’s plan will be less food; more expensive food; plus slugs in the lettuce and worms in the apples. Or higher pesticide residues. Or both.
We’ve campaigned. We’ve lobbied. We’ve marched. We’ve demonstrated (in December, you recall, I was fined £600 for demonstrating for a referendum in the Strasbourg parliament). We’ve collected signatures on petitions. We’ve printed leaflets. There have been dozens of village referendums. We’ve run “I Want a Referendum” postal ballots with stunning response rates, and 89% against the Treaty. Yet still the wretched Treaty goes on, and while the House of Lords, or the Irish Referendum, or the Poles could still put a spoke in the wheel, I’m not holding my breath.
No wonder so many on our side of the debate are spitting with frustration. We’ve won the arguments hands down, but the Treaty marches on like Frankenstein, impervious to attack. We haven’t landed the killer blow.
One man has come up with a new idea that could just work. Stuart Wheeler (a well-known Conservative supporter, and a campaigner on Europe, on climate, and human rights) is taking legal action. He is going to court to demand a judicial review of the government’s decision to deny a referendum, which he argues infringes the reasonable expectations of voters based on the government’s manifesto commitments. He has engaged a heavy-weight QC, Rabinder Singh.
We know that previous attempts to challenge the European project in the courts, based on infringement of the British Constitution, have failed. But we are advised that in this case there is some prospect of success. Even if the judicial review is not granted, it is possible that the court may criticise the government’s approach, which could have a positive effect on the Lords’ deliberations. The case is up on April 22nd (the eve of Saint George’s Day).
The problem is that litigation doesn’t come cheap, and while Stuart Wheeler deserves our gratitude for supporting the action so far, he needs our help. If you really want to know what you can do to stop the Brussels Juggernaut, here’s your chance. Send a cheque to the Stuart Wheeler Lisbon Litigation Account, at Penthouse A, 21 Davies Street, London W1K 3DE. This could just be the killer blow we’re waiting for.
