'How safe is our food and who do you trust to provide the answers?' looks to be the key question at this year’s XVIth International Plant Protection Congress in Glasgow.

And yet, despite the great advances made by a sophisticated, science-driven crop protection industry up to 50 percent of world food production is still lost each year due to weeds, pests and crop diseases.

This issue will be addressed by Professor Tony Hardy of the UK's CSL (Central Science Laboratory), who, through his role as chair of the European Food Safety Authority Scientific Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues, will look at pan-European solutions to food safety issues.

He will be asking whether, with increasingly sophisticated products available to guarantee crop yield and quality, and concerns over GM technology, food safety concerns should be addressed at a European Commission level or on a national basis.

Simon Browne of Meyrick Estates, Winchester will attempt to bring a 'down to earth' point of view to Congress by looking at the on-farm practicalities of modern day agrochemical application. In a paper entitled: 'Crop protection at the sharp end with a blunt instrument', Browne will discuss the many influences and pressures that affect practical farming today such as water rates, buffer zones, NVZs and the Water Framework Directive.

"This is not a whinge," he insisted. "Complaining about things such as the Voluntary Initiative is ridiculous. We have to be proactive in all areas and gear our farms accordingly to cope with additional requirements asked of us as users of crop protection products."

Dr Christian Verschueren, director general of Brussels-based Crop Life International will also address the Congress on the progress being made by the industry in providing responsible stewardship for the current range of plant protection products available to growers and how concerns for consumer and environmental safety can be met today and in the future.

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