Campaign launches to ban pesticides and transform agriculture in Europe

A new campaign has been launched today to stop the collapse of nature and to save rural livelihoods in the EU by phasing out pesticides.

Civil society organisations from across the EU have submitted a proposal to the European Commission for a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) calling for new legislation to phase out pesticides, restore biodiversity and support farmers to transform our food and farming system.

International scientists have in recent months called for an urgent "transformative change" to stop the collapse of nature. A quarter of Europe's wild animals are severely threatened, half of our nature sites are in an unfavourable condition, and ecosystem services are deteriorating. 

Scientists are calling for a cut in the use of pesticides, together with a move to ecologically-based farming, in order to halt or reverse the massive decline in insect populations. In addition, four million small farms disappeared between 2005 and 2016 in the EU and have since been replaced by large agroindustrial businesses exacerbating the crisis even further.

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