If you've been following PAN UK for a while now, as many of you have, you'll have noticed that 2022 has been a busy year already. You are probably aware of our work with supermarkets to reduce the use of pesticides in their supply chains. This work ultimately helps to safeguard the farm workers handling these chemicals, helps to conserve our wildlife and also better protects consumers from residues of pesticides in their food.
It was through this work that we began investigating one of the UK’s most common food standards labels, Red Tractor, which is viewed by both the general public and many decision-makers as offering some kind of guarantee that food featuring its logo has been grown in an environmentally-friendly way. However, a closer look reveals that Red Tractor standards are failing to drive pesticide reduction and urgently need updating in order to keep pace with the level of environmental protection expected by UK consumers.
We found that Red Tractor standards had some key omissions including:
No goals or targets to reduce pesticide use
No requirement to select less toxic pesticide products
No clear requirements to limit pesticide use or limit when they are deployed
You can read more about our report with The Nature Friendly Farming Network and RSPB here.
We are keen to work with Red Tractor to improve their standards and we invite you to take a minute to send a quick email to Red Tractor's CEO asking that they do more to support farmers to drive a reduction in pesticide use. (If you're a farmer, there is an alternative option here.)
