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Channel: European Crop Protection Association – POLITICO
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Consumers underestimate the severity of the global food challenge

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According to research released today, significant levels of public misunderstanding exist about the realities of food production. Only 4% of adults surveyed in Europe correctly estimate that world food production must increase by 60% by 2050 – the figure given by the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

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Results of a survey conducted by YouGov Plc suggest that European adults (UK, Germany, Spain, Poland) underestimate the potential severity of the world’s food supply problem and the link between productivity and prices. They also underestimate the role that pesticides can play in supplying affordable food to the consumers. In fact only 31% of adults surveyed think that farmers’ inability to protect their crops against diseases and crop infestation is a factor directly linked to increasing the cost of the world’s food supply.

“If farmers cannot protect their crops, cost will inevitably increase,” Graeme Taylor, spokesperson for the pesticides industry said at an event held in Brussels on the future of European farming where the survey results were released.

Consumers expect – and deserve – to have access to safe and affordable food of good quality. Graeme Taylor

Many country-level results also revealed misperceptions. In Poland nearly one third (30%) of adults misunderstand the purpose of pesticides, disagreeing with the fact that they are designed to protect plants from damaging influences including harmful bugs, invasive weeds, parasites and fungi. When asked what percentage of global crop yields they think are currently lost to plant pests and diseases each year, only 12% of respondents in the United Kingdom correctly identify the correct figure, which is 40% (source: European Union, European Parliament (2015), Draft Report on Technological solutions to sustainable agriculture in the EU (2015/2225(INI)).

ECPA is launching an initiative aimed at engaging society in a conversation about the role pesticides play in food production.

According to Graeme Taylor, “Consumers expect – and deserve – to have access to safe and affordable food of good quality. To continue to be able to produce sufficient quantities of quality crops requires sustainable use of pesticides. However, results from the new research suggest that consumers do not appreciate the magnitude of what is at stake if farmers don’t have access to innovative solutions like pesticides to protect their crops.”

To highlight these issues, ECPA is launching an initiative aimed at engaging society in a conversation about the role pesticides play in food production. Join the debate at www.ecpa.eu/with-or-without, or on Twitter: #WithOrWithout.

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