There is a ‘device’ being used by our most vocal lobbyists as they chase new regulation or the overturning of old rules: Europe has banned it, or done it, or changed it, they are telling us, is the reason we should reshape our own ="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/farmkenya/article/2001372307/danger-of-pesticide-poison-to-animals-and-best-ways-to-save-their-lives">policies<.
The problem with this form of case building, just like when our children tell us their friend’s parents allow it or have bought it, is that the comparison comes without circumstantial evidence, and with the possibility of being untrue in the way it is presented, or, at the very least, of being irrelevant to our own circumstances.
Indeed, few things are more illustrative of those pitfalls than the oft-cited banning of pesticides by Europe. In the ‘one-story-fits-all’ line of case-building, we are told that Europe has banned a mass of pesticides because they are giving humans cancer and reproductive problems. This is painful for experts to witness.
For, in this era of short-form information, few non-experts will go and find out the actual truth of what Europe has ="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/farmkenya/opeds/article/2001383037/we-should-rethink-use-of-pesticides-urgently">banned<, or why, and what the consequences are. Yet, without that knowledge, we stand in danger of being badly manipulated A perfect example is a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids, which are now banned in Europe. They were banned because of their claimed impact on bees, not humans.
For, over a decade ago, managers of large bee colonies in the US and Europe began reporting that bees were disappearing. That is worrying for everyone because bees are key ="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/farmkenya/article/2001306291/pesticide-traces-high-in-spinach-strawberry">pollinators The US did not, with its Environmental Protection Agency stating there was no scientific evidence to support such a ban. But Europe has moved on a number of issues in recent years without the same need for scientific evidence that the US applies. However, it turned out it wasn’t pesticides that were emptying the world’s bee hives, but a tiny parasite, the Varroa Destructor mite, which had swept through the honey bees ="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/farmkenya/article/2001341036/pesticides-silent-killers-or-a-necessary-evil">cultivated For in the two years since the EU’s neonicotinoids ban, the Varroa mite has continued infecting Europe’s ="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/farmkenya/article/2001330885/what-you-need-to-know-about-pesticides">bees Indeed, the French announcement follows so many ‘derogations’ by member states on this particular ban - which is where they ask to be allowed to set aside a law - that it has become a controversy in its own right in the EU how many ‘derogations’ can be allowed on any ban. And that is how information starts to look, once the full context is given. For campaigners who comment on how it is a disgrace we have crop protection in Kenya that is banned in ="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/farmkenya/article/2001349091/lobby-roots-for-ban-of-cancerous-pesticide-exports-to-kenya-by-eu">Europe<, mean, among other things: We should adopt a ban that there is, definitively, no scientific evidence for, that the US has rejected, that the EU states are resisting and overturning, and which is generating huge crop losses, just because that’s the path the EU took to address the devastation that is actually being caused, primarily, by the Varroa mite.
Of course, it looks a bit different put that way – as ‘disgraceful Kenyan regulations and regulators’ go. Actually, what it looks like, which is the reality, is that our regulators, just like the EPA, are taking a lot of flak, but doing just one thing – sticking with the facts.
They aren’t trying to poison Kenyans, and they are keeping a very, very close eye on bees too.
Mr Kimunguyi is the CEO, Agrochemicals Association of Kenya