FARM NEWS 7
• JUN/JUL 2019
WE MUST UPHOLD OUR
STANDARDS IN TRADE DEALS
The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) is warning the Government not to
undermine British farmers by agreeing trade deals which allow imports of
agricultural products produced to lower standards than apply domestically.
TFA Chief Executive, George
Dunn, said “In the halo sur-
rounding the State Visit of the US
President, Donald Trump, there
has been much talk about an early
UK/US trade deal in the wake of
our departure from the European
Union. The worry is, in the rush
to achieve a quick result, we will
allow a breach in our standards
which will not be good for con-
sumers, the environment, animal
welfare or UK agriculture.”
Much of the talk within the
national media has been around
the issue of food safety, how-
ever, the issues go much more
widely than that. Production
standards have been imposed
domestically not just for food
safety but for environmental
and animal welfare reasons.
Whilst these can be more diffi-
cult to protect within interna-
tional trade it is not impossible.
However, it will require determi-
nation on the part of the British
Government to ensure that cur-
welfare practices which we are
rent standards are upheld and
trying to control. We might as
that there is legislation to apply
well rip up our standards if we
the same standards to traded
take that approach,” said Mr
products.
Dunn.
“If the standards we impose
“Without a clear commitment
upon domestic food production
from the British Government
are important to us as a country,
to uphold our standards Brit-
we must also ensure that we
ish farmers will be forced to
apply those same standards on
compete unfairly and will be
the food we import. To do oth-
undermined commercially. A
erwise would be duplicitous as
race to the bottom on standards
it would support the continued
should not be our aspiration,
use of environmental and animal
but if we open the floodgates to
68442 - WBateman&Co - QUTR.pdf 1 16/11/2017 16:12:26
Black-grass with
reduced sensitivity to
glyphosate detected
C
M
Y
CM
MY
at the full label recommended rate), the po-
tential for resistance to establish and spread
has been demonstrated clearly. People are
reminded to follow the guidelines issued
jointly by AHDB and the Weed Resistance
Action Group: ahdb.org.uk/wrag
The study used material gathered by the
black-grass resistance initiative. The work was
funded by the Biotechnology and Biosciences
Research Council (BBSRC) and AHDB.
AHDB has also invested in a five-year pro-
gramme of work to improve glyphosate re-
sistance management guidelines. The work,
which concludes next year, focuses on the
main glyphosate application periods for the
control of black-grass and Italian rye-grass.
CY
EARLY signs of decreased sensitivity to the
herbicide glyphosate have been detected
in several black-grass field populations in
England.
The project, led by Rothamsted Research,
also found that decreased sensitivity was
more likely in fields where populations had
been exposed repeatedly to glyphosate.
The scientists also showed clearly that off-
spring from plants that survived glyphosate
application were even less sensitive to the
herbicide.
Although no UK black-grass populations
are classed as resistant (i.e. weeds should
still be controlled by well-timed applications
CMY
K
‘ A race to
the bottom
on standards
should not be
our aspiration
’
lower standard products from
abroad that is exactly what we
will achieve. ” said Mr Dunn.
www.tfa.org.uk