SASKATOON is the latest Canadian community to consider a ban on pesticide use. There are pesticide bylaws in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and elsewhere, but it comes as a surprise that the anti-pesticide movement would gain a foothold in the heartland of prairie agriculture.
Saskatoon’s pesticide proposal is still in its infancy but at this stage appears particularly limiting. It would ban the use on city and private property of any product carrying a pest control product number from the Pest Control Management Agency. Exemption permits would be available where health and safety are affected or pests are causing economic losses.
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An obvious weakness of such a bylaw is enforcement. How can a city prevent the use of products that are legal and widely available?
But more importantly, why should municipal councillors, backed by no science department, feel qualified to ban the use of products that the federal government has scientifically assessed and found safe? Indeed, just two years ago Ottawa passed a new Pest Control Products Act that delivers greater accountability and higher margins of safety from the Pest Management Regulatory Agency.
Farmers should care about municipal pesticide bans.
The implication of bans in most people’s minds is that pesticides are inherently unsafe. Although wrong, it will be hard to refute and eventually the urban population will decide that if pesticides are apparently so dangerous, they shouldn’t be used on food crops.
An attack on pesticide use in crops would be devastating to conventional farmers who supply the vast majority of healthy, low-cost food produced in Canada.
A far better option to pesticide bans are policies that encourage the use of integrated pest management, already familiar to most farmers and indeed already successfully used by Saskatoon in its public parks.
IPM recognizes and respects pesticides as a powerful tool that, although valuable, should not necessarily be the first one used when controlling weeds and insects.
Prevention is the first goal, and it is accomplished in urban areas by managing land to promote healthy lawns and other plantings that choke weeds. IPM also uses tools such as beneficial insects that eat weeds, judicious use of chemical pesticides and the creation of acceptable pest tolerance levels.
Successful IPM implementation requires a robust public education component because in most communities it is homeowners who overuse and improperly apply pesticides, generating complaints.
Serious promotion of IPM can deliver what most people want Ñ attractive green spaces and a healthy environment Ñ without blocking the intelligent use of safe and effective pesticides.
