Wildlife Trusts calls for pesticide use to be slashed by 50 per cent

Huge effect

“This has had a huge effect on the rest of the natural world. The vital role insects perform is undermined and everything which depends on them suffers, from hedgehogs to nightingales, wildflowers to wetlands.

“The Agriculture Bill is a golden opportunity to set high standards in law and make sure insect-friendly farming practices are rewarded.

“We want to see an ambitious pesticide reduction target and at least 30 per cent of land being managed for nature so insects can become abundant once more.”

The Wildlife Trusts’ call comes just one month after the Pesticide Action Network claimed in its own report, Toxic Trade, that new trade deals with the USA and others could drive down UK pesticide standards.

At the time, the report’s co-author Dr Emily Lydgate, senior lecturer in environmental law at the University of Sussex, said: “A clear and central objective of US negotiators is for the UK to lower its pesticide standards.

“The current picture in the UK of intense political pressure coupled with a lack of parliamentary and public scrutiny means the risk of this happening is very high.”