Last month the CCRI brought together policymakers, regulators, farmers, researchers and representatives from NGOs at the SPRINT (Sustainable Plant Protection Transition) conference in Brussels.
Understanding the real-world impacts of pesticides on health and the environment remains a scientific hurdle for regulators who must decide which products to allow onto the market. Furthermore, identifying viable ways of using fewer pesticides is often a struggle for farmers. The event presented evidence from the EU SPRINT project which is aiming to resolve these long-standing issues.
CCRI’s Jane Mills oversaw the conference with support from colleagues Charlotte Chivers, Michelle Kilfoyle, Wan Atiya and Caitlin MacKenzie. The event was moderated by CCRI’s director Matt Reed.
Contributions came from the European Commission, European Food Safety Agency, The Food and Agriculture Organisation, The Pesticide Action Network and farmers who have engaged with the project over its duration. Presentations were made by numerous people, all of whom have contributed to the project findings which are summarised in a ‘SPRINT Project Results’ magazine.
Over 400 people registered for the event – both in-person and online which was a positive reflection on the importance of the topic and despite challenges associated with transport strikes which took place in Brussels on the day!
In partnership with 27 organisations across Europe and Argentina, CCRI have led communications and dissemination related to findings and results on the €15million SPRINT project since it started in 2020. Over the past five years we have shared these findings with a breadth of audiences including the public, farmers, NGOs and policymakers to support stronger regulation of pesticides and more sustainable farming systems.
In addition to this conference there have been regular webinars, newsletters and blogs, and we have ensured a steady flow of pesticide evidence on the project’s social media channels in a range of accessible formats.
The project has proved to be of strong public interest – recently making front page news in Volkskrant – a national newspaper in the Netherlands and appeared in the Guardian in an article entitled ‘Toxic cocktail: study finds almost 200 pesticides in European homes‘ earlier this year.
As the project reaches its conclusion, in addition to the results magazine mentioned above, a three-minute video has been produced which introduces some of SPRINT’s key findings:
