WAITROSE is banning its suppliers from using systemic neonicotinoids on produce destined for the supermarket.
Under a Seven Point Plan for Pollinators which begins immediately, the retailer is asking growers of fruit, vegetables and flowers to stop using the pesticides by the end of 2014, due to their alleged ill-effects.
Waitrose said the restriction on use is a ‘precautionary measure and will remain in place until scientists can demonstrate conclusively whether or not the formulations are adversely affecting populations of pollinator insects’.
But the supermarket has come under fire from the NFU which said there was ‘still no evidence showing that neonicotinoids are the cause of widespread declines in pollinator populations’.
A spokeswoman said: “Without good evidence, we risk making changes based on popular opinion that do nothing to measurably improve pollinator health, but do have costs for the supply chain and unintended consequences for the environment.”
The new approach will also be rolled out progressively to commodity crops such as oil seed rape on the Waitrose Farm at Leckford in Hampshire and ‘as soon as practicable’ to other areas of the arable sector which supply Waitrose.
Continue reading Waitrose bans use of three neonicotinoids
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