Grain producers are angered over new provincial pesticide regulations, insisting the measures will mean big losses for Quebec grain farmers.
The pesticide regulations were recently announced as part of the Quebec Pesticide Strategy 2015-2018 and were published in the Gazette Officielle du Quebec on July 19.
The government intends to prohibit the use of five pesticides for agricultural purposes unless it is justified in advance by an agrologist.
Of the pesticides that would be banned, three belong to the family of neonicotinoids, which recent studies have associated with the decline of bee colonies.
According to farmer and vice president of the Quebec Grain Producers William Van Tassel, the new measures will significantly increase production costs and may mean a yield reduction of more than 5 per cent.
“Our province will have those regulations but other provinces or countries will not,” Van Tassel explained. “Having lower yields but the same prices as elsewhere, means we’ll be less competitive.”
The association estimates that this decline in productivity will amount to several tens of millions of dollars annually.
Added to this is the cost of agronomists and record-keeping of pesticides that the government-commissioned impact assessment estimates will total $ 8.5 million per year.
Many environmentalists say the new regulations don’t go far enough, and are coming to late.
The David Suzuki Foundation wonders why Quebec is restricting the five pesticides, instead of flat out banning them.
“The federal government plans to ban Imidaclopride completely, shortly, so why would Quebec no just go ahead with the general federal orientations?” said Louise Henault-Ethier, who manages science projects at the foundation.
“Quebec should go ahead and get a head start to accommodate alternatives for farmers and really help them through this transition because it's coming anyways,” she said.
Henault emphasized that the need to ban pesticides is an urgent one, because pesticides have been shown to play a role in the decline of biodiversity on earth.
“The David Suzuki foundation considers that pesticides pose an immense risk to human health and environmental health,” she said.
Van Tassel says grain farmers use alternatives whenever possible. At the Grain Research Centre in Beloeil farmers and researchers develop and test new crops, and attempt to find strains that are more resistant to pests and disease.
But he says some pesticide use is a necessary evil.
“The ones putting it in place, they're in the office buildings in Quebec city,” he said. “Why don't we at least talk together more and see how we could get things better adapted for both, for the farmers.”
The grain producers plan to make their case to the province next week.
“We already met them before,” he said. “It didn’t change too much. Will it change now? We’ll see.”
With files from The Canadian Press
