Quebec’s new pesticide regulations can show the way if the risk management processes are rigorous and transparent, and scientific research stays independent.
Quebec’s new pesticide regulations can show the way if the risk management processes are rigorous and transparent, and scientific research stays independent.
In 1992, Quebec implemented an agricultural pest-management strategy aimed at reducing pesticide use by half by the year 2000. Despite undeniable progress, this objective was not met. The government then adopted a second strategy in 2011, the Stratégie phytosanitaire québécoise en agriculture, whose goal was a 25 percent decrease in the health and environmental risks posed by pesticides by 2021. Its success depended on the adoption of integrated pest management, an approach that focuses on multiple pest-control strategies to curb farmers’ use of pesticides. This strategy will not meet its objectives either, mainly because insufficient resources have been allocated for it. In fact, the spring 2016 report of the Quebec Auditor General noted that pesticide sales have continued to rise in Quebec, and that the associated risk indicators had increased in 2014.
Quebec’s sustainable development commissioner criticized the effectiveness of the strategies, indicating that the primary aim was to raise awareness among farmer and carry out studies, but that supports to reduce pesticide use had been limited. He noted that the government’s financial assistance to farmers was not contingent upon their adoption of integrated pest management. This is despite the existence of a wide array of pest management strategies that are less dependent on synthetic pesticides and that also produce excellent results, including improved agricultural yields, as Karen Ross describes in her Policy Options article.
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