Sprays next to go?

Environmentally, it's hard to think of a single measure that would have as much of a benefit as banning pesticides. So I for one would welcome it.

Remember 1.5 million people wouldn't have starved to death in 1847 if there was a spray for potatoe blight.

Ah lads sure there's no spray in the supermarket so y would ye need them

Remember if the brits had given us more than one variety of potato there might have been a more blight resistant variety (or not given us one at all) and later didn't export all the other food out of the country so our population would get to a level where numbers were balanced with resources a la malthus we may have had no need of any sprays.....food was being exported out of the country as people starved to death.

Sorry, I know the comment was made in the context of what was being discussed in this thread so not having a pop and accept the point banning all sprays would not be feasible in terms of food production etc but I've been doing a bit of reading about the famine lately....

I'd say it's a front to getting a spray register in like the fert. Be total control over the sprays then which would be a good thing. Talk of the spraying case having to be done every 2 or 3 years aswell to keep current.

Also talk of every sprayer to be registered to be used

I'm well aware yields would be massively impacted. At a guess they'd be cut by something like 70%. It would be carnage in terms of food production.

But that wasn't my point. My point was with regard to the environment which would reap the benefits but of course you completely ignored that.

There's certainly a strong argument to restrict non-agri uses, the over use and mis use of the likes roundup by CCs, Landscape companies etc. is rampant across the countryside with much damage to ditches, trees and riparian zones, leaving vast sterile zones that eventually either erode large amounts of soil or become infested with invasive herbicide resistant weeds like Maretail, Hymaland Balsam etc.

Total elimination of pesticides use at this point is obviously not viable - however we need to look at significantly reducing usage in many areas cos issues like water contamination, pest resistance, soil degradation, mass bee and pollinator die offs etc. around the world are only getting worse and r significantly damaging the sustainably of future food production, the health of farm families in third world countries were sprays long banned here are still used etc.. Hopefully new tech like drones etc. in the near future can help with this by removing the need to blanket apply the likes of sprays to control aphids by much more precise and targeted applications.

I've noticed a big time resurgence of the wild bees here since the pesticide for leatherjackets (crane fly larvae) was banned. This year I saw a wild bees hive for the first time in maybe 30 years.

The use of the likes of MCPA would be a major loss here though.. Surely a more targeted approach is needed.