Rational Agriculture

We hear so much about the supposed problems associated with modern farming that the positive news is often given a low profile. It's good, then, to see a report in the Farmers' Weekly telling us that Pesticide residues in water show significant decline. According to this, there was a 19% reduction in the number of surface water samples failing to meet the drinking water quality standard in 2004, following an 18% decrease the year before. The vast majority of groundwater samples in the UK also fall below the limit.

And the limit in question? That's 0.1 part per billion: 1 part in 10,000,000,000. Or, to put it another way, the equivalent of 1 second in 317 years! Since residue limits are set in a highly precautionary way, we are talking about very remote theoretical risks from water, even before suppliers have spent large sums of money removing the tiny residues of pesticides.

This also shows that farmers are adopting a sensible and responsible approach to pesticide use. The message: don't worry unnecessarily about things which really are no problem at all.