Thread by @Tom_Clarke

Ok, It's confession time:
My name is Tom. I'm a nature friendly-farmer, anti-Brexit, climate change activist.
Over 15% of my farm is dedicated to measures which enhance nature.

I also back @NFUSugar application for emergency use of neonicotinoids in beet.

Here's why 👇/1

I back the broad ban on neonicotinoid pesticides. I don't want to use insecticides at all, and we had grown too dependent on these chemicals.
There are other ways to control pests and I'm at the forefront of pursuing these. /2

https://twitter.com/Tom_Clarke/status/1270317266400350208?s=19

But, Climate Change is wreaking havoc on all the natural systems which our farming and food supply relies.
Last winter was exceptionally mild in England, with few frosts.
Record-breaking numbers of aphids survived winter. They transmit a kind of beet malaria (virus yellows) /3

This disease decimates crop yields. Making growing the crop uneconomic. Some growers have lost 80% of their crop. Farmers are giving up growing beet for the first time in 100 years. /4

https://twitter.com/MikeNeaverson/status/1326993916051263488?s=19

Longer term brilliant plant scientists will develop varieties which are resistant to the diseases spread by these insects. But these solutions are some years off.
In the meantime, sugar beet crops do provide considerable ecological benefits in our crop rotation (cont) /5

Just one example;

By providing vital food sources for endangered migratory swans who fly 3,000 miles from the Russian Arctic to overwinter here /6

https://twitter.com/Tom_Clarke/status/1334124067042025472?s=19

And this really isn't about Brexit, or lowering our standards compared to other countries. If anything the reverse, we are catching up with 🇪🇺, where some countries have used these chems in beet ever since the EU wide 'ban' /7

fwi.co.uk/arable/france-…

So if these chems are 'bee-killers' and been banned how have other countries justified continuing to use them?
By using provisions in the EU laws which allow emergency use of otherwise unpermitted chemicals when independent scientific experts agree it is justified. /8

Conditions are applied to the emergency approval.
EU scientists have agreed that evidence suggesting use as a seed dressing (a tiny amount) in a non-flowering crop with conditions on following crops is acceptable.
We'll see if UK scientists agree. /9
fwi.co.uk/news/farmers-w…

I do loads on my farm to restore and enhance nature and I wouldn't put that at risk.
I shared a platform with eminent scientists just last Thursday exploring ways we can all do better at protecting and restoring pollinators on farms and in gardens /10

https://twitter.com/bumble_being/status/1337120118434836480?s=19

But why even carry on growing beet if the virus makes it uneconomic?
Well, firstly, plenty of farmers agree and have stopped.
But if enough stop, the homegrown sugar industry will fold, and probably won't come back- like in 🇨🇮.
Why does that matter, we can just import it? /11

Yes we could.
We could close down our homegrown sugar industry, and import all our sugar.
That sugar would come from European Beet growers who had approved use of the seed treatments.
Or it would come from imported sugar cane..
Not all good news... /12

https://twitter.com/Tom_Clarke/status/1271800111375568898?s=19

The (fully public) application for emergency use is temporary and comes with strict conditions. No seed would be treated unless an independent scientific forecast proved it would be necessary.
Even then growers could choose other tools.
This is a very high bar. /13

Meanwhile, I and others will continue our frantic search for other measures which could bridge the gap until plant breeders can develop resistant varieties.
As I talk about with the brilliant @BBRO_Beet here /14

https://twitter.com/BBRO_Beet/status/1333769201710997505?s=19