The NFU was in Court last week fighting Friends of the Earth over the emergency authorisations of two neonicotinoid seed treatments. Legal adviser Lucy Smith takes up the story…
She writes:
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The NFU was in Court last week fighting Friends of the Earth over the emergency authorisations of two neonicotinoid seed treatments. Farmers can now breathe a welcome sigh of relief as the Judge has ruled that Friends of the Earth’s legal challenge is “unarguable”.
The environmental campaign group attempted to bring a legal challenge against the Government’s decision to grant the temporary authorisations. However, the NFU believes it is crucial for members to have access to these much-needed plant protection products. We know that oilseed rape growers in the East and South East of England have suffered exceptional and devastating yield losses due to pressure from Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle and so we were determined to fight the case on behalf of our members.
The NFU was an interested party in the case because we had applied for the authorisations, and we have been working tirelessly over the last few months to ensure that our members’ interests were represented to the Court. We have made excellent use of the NFU’s in-house expertise, with our Legal, Horticulture, Crops and Regulatory teams all working together to put forward the best possible case for farmers.
Last Thursday, we travelled to London for a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice to determine whether or not Friends of the Earth’s challenge should be allowed to proceed. It was an exciting and rather tense day, but fortunately some light relief was on hand in the form of two campaigners in bee costumes!
We are delighted with the judge’s ruling and we hope that our members are too. We’ll keep at it; working to ensure that farmers have access to the critical plant protection products that they need.