Regulatory policy and agricultural technologies – time to reverse the trend and feed the world
In 25 years’ time there will be 1.7 billion more mouths to feed in the world. An increased food supply can only be achieved in two ways: by bringing more land into production or by increasing crop yields. Many crops are only at 60-70% of their yield potential, and improvements can be made through a combination of biotechnical and chemical approaches. In Europe, realisation of this potential is prevented by increasingly restrictive crop protection chemical and GM crop legislation.
How will agricultural technologies evolve over the next 10-20 years? Why are the technologies we already have, with so much to contribute, impeded by regulations that make no sense? The seminars and the BCPC debate will examine the drivers and technology trends that can deliver both food security and protection of the natural environment. The barriers to achievement, including the impact of new European agro-environmental policies on availability of both chemical crop protection and agricultural biotechnology tools, will also be discussed.
Since the 1960s, regulation of agro-biotechnology has reacted to harm caused, for example by agrochemicals, by restricting or banning their use. In Europe since the 1980s, we have seen the emergence of the precautionary principle, which attempts to foresee and forestall the risks of new products on the basis of potential harm, but in advance of any evidence of harm. The motivation for the precautionary principle was laudable but the outcomes have been counter-functional, for example by allowing EU decision makers to make politically convenient decisions, with no obvious societal costs, in response to pressure group campaigning. 
The session will include presentations and discussion of a joint Royal Society of Chemistry/Institution of Chemical Engineers report on the sustainability of food production and modern technologies – particularly the chemical sciences – that can be applied to meet the challenges.
Directive 91/414/EEC has already resulted in a 55% reduction in the number of active ingredients registered in Europe, with significant further loss anticipated by the end of 2008. However, proposed revisions to the Directive would make all remaining active ingredients subject to hazard-based regulatory cut-off criteria, rather than comparative risk assessment. Based on the draft legislation adopted by Parliament at the 1st reading, ECPA estimates that up to 85% of active ingredients would trigger one or more of these non-inclusion criteria, with up to 40% of the remainder being ‘candidates for substitution’. The impact would be particularly acute for insecticides, with an estimated loss of between 80 to 95%.
Speakers proposing the motion will present the case for GM technologies, including their importance for UK and European food self-sufficiency. They will describe crop traits delivering improved quality and yields of the major European crops, and when these can be brought to market. Traits for resistance to drought or to raised temperatures and coping with higher variability in the major climatic variants will become important as climate change progresses. The motion will cover the environmental benefits of using GM varieties to increase productivity of existing agricultural land, and to reduce carbon emissions compared with agrochemical use.
In the last few years alternative toxicology tests have become more widely acceptable within industry and to regulators in safety assessments. A variety of such tests are now readily available for some toxicological end points. Already in common use for industrial chemicals, the seminar will review the main alternative toxicological tests currently available, with a view to determining how they improve animal welfare and how they may save time and money in the registration process for plant protection products.