The precautionary principle

I was not a great fan of salads when I was young. Now, I really enjoy them, particularly at this time of year when they are made mostly from things I’ve grown in the garden and on the allotment. The crowning touch is the dressings made by my wife, who now incorporates this year’s taste sensation in the dressings - balsamic vinegar glaze.

Eating salads can be hazardous. Last year 31 people died in Germany, and over 1,700 were made very ill, by eating organic bean sprouts served in a number of restaurants. In 2006, four people died in the US from eating organic spinach. All these deaths were attributed to E. coli. There is currently, due to concerns over E. coli, a massive recall of conventionally grown lettuce produced in California and delivered throughout the US and Canada.

California is well known for its draconian pesticide laws. In Europe, we have the prospect of key pesticides that have been used safely for years and years being withdrawn because they may be defined as hazardous under the new EU pesticide regulations.

Electricity is hazardous but the risk of using it is well tolerated by society. Hence, society already embraces the safe use of materials that are hazardous but this uniquely does not apply to pesticides, to the extreme anger of the scientific community. I assume the phrase ‘the precautionary principle’ was used to argue for the hazard cut-offs in the new European pesticide regulations.

Well, some strains of E. coli are clearly hazardous and there are systems set up to minimise the risk. No doubt these are being strengthened as a result of the types of these headlined incidents. I dare say that some strains of E. coli are much more hazardous than the pesticides that are likely to be withdrawn because of the artificially set hazard cut-offs in the new pesticide regulations. This is despite the fact that there is no evidence that the risk is unacceptably high when these pesticides are used in practice. It all sounds like dual standards to me.

Perhaps the discrepancy in the way these risks are viewed is due to the fact that pesticides are synthetic chemicals whilst E. coli is natural. However, as they say, anthrax is natural!

I can’t claim to be a scientist, but having had scientific training I can often identify discrepancies in attitudes within the various forms of agricultural production. A striking example was when I last worked in New Zealand. Whilst I was away in some distant part of the South Island, my wife attended a ‘Women in Agriculture’ meeting. It was a visit to an organic farm where they were told, rather piously, that the nutrients for the system were supplied by collecting leaf litter from nearby forests.

Just let us think about that a minute. The natural nutrient cycle of a forest is disturbed to provide nutrients for an organic farm! Surely there are less harmful ways of supplying these nutrients. I suspect that the use of ‘conventional’ fertilisers may be far less damaging to the environment.

Whilst I recognise the concerns expressed by some over the production of food I’m also appalled at the statements by some single interest groups that unjustifiably foster fear and reinforce ill-informed and unscientific perceptions. This spills over into regulations. As a result, we may unjustifiably lose valuable pesticides and we still await the widespread adoption of GM crops in Europe. I can foresee that in a few years time there will be questions as to why we were so slow to adopt GM technology. By that time, of course, the single interest groups will have moved onto new ‘issues’.

Can I finish on the subject of salads, particularly cucumbers? We have only two plants but they are churning out at least a dozen cucumbers a week. We give some away but we still have a surplus and cucumber soup features strongly in our current diet! By the way, due to the precautionary principle, no animal manures are used in my garden or allotment because I grow a wide range of produce that is eaten cooked and uncooked. It is impossible to limit animal manure use solely to those crops that are cooked before being eaten.