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Following the German Winegrowers' Association (DWV), the Federal Association of Organic Winegrowing (Ecovin) has also spoken out against the EU Commission's planned directive on the sustainable use of pesticides. The Federal Chairman of Ecovin, Andreas Hattemer, said in a statement: "Yes to less dangerous pesticides in agriculture, no to foreseeable misguided drafting." If the EU's proposals were implemented one-to-one, this would mean the end of organic viticulture in many growing regions, Hattemer explained the association's position. Ecovin pleads for a fundamental revision of the EU draft regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products.
The draft presented by the EU Commission, called Sustainable Use Regulation (SUR), aims to halve the use and risk of plant protection products in the EU by 2030. According to Ecovin, the directive only insufficiently differentiates between chemical-synthetic agents and those that are permitted in organic farming. Although organic winegrowers have already made a considerable contribution to the reduction of pesticides and have also increasingly switched to Piwi grape varieties, they are disadvantaged in the current EU draft. Organic viticulture needs, above all, effective means against fungal diseases. "At the moment we only have a few substances available, such as baking powder, sulphur and copper, the quantities of which we cannot simply halve," says Andreas Hattemer.
In the draft regulation, the reduction of plant protection products is primarily measured according to the kilograms applied per hectare, not according to the danger of a substance. For organic winegrowers, on the other hand, indicators that take into account the health and environmental risks of individual active substances are more appropriate. Ecovin therefore demands that the natural substances agreed with the EU Organic Regulation should not be included in the reduction target.
(ru / Source: Ecovin; Photo: 123rf.com)
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German Winegrowers' Association against across-the-board reduction of plant protection products