Agricultural chemical fears firmly rejected

Press, 3 July 1979, Page 2

Agricultural chemical fears firmly rejected

PA Wellington The Under-Secretary of Agriculture (Mr Talbot) yesterday strongly defended the use of agricultural chemicals.

Assertions that the world would be better off without agricultural chemicals and animal remedies were not only stupid but highly dangerous, Mr Talbot said in a speech to the Agricultural Chemical and Animal Remedy Manufacturers' annual conference at Wairakei. ■ “Those who hold such views must, in honesty, accept that if chemicals are not used in agriculture the inevitable result must be world-wide starvation on an unprecedented scale,” he said.

Agricultural chemicals, directly, and indirectly, had kept millions of people alive but had caused very few deaths. Mr Talbot said that if all the pests affecting agricultural production throughout the world could be controlled, the world would have more healthy people and be a much better place in which to live.

The agricultural chemical industry had been strongly criticised in recent years, pr. ticujarly since the Vietnam War, and a belief had de eloped in Western nations that agricultural chemical companies had only one aim — to pollute the world completely. Those who held this view had had it reinforced by the reluctance of agricultural chc r.ical companies to explain to the public the benefits derived from the responsible use of chemicals, Mr Talbot said. “This federation has an abysmal record in this respect,” he said. It appeared that the federation was prepared to leave its education and information function to the statutory boards and organisations established to control the legislation and regulations affecting its industry.

Mr Talbot said that the federation could not allow this to continue if it was to overcome the fears of what he described as the “back to nature, everything must be. natural, anti-progress fringe’’ element.”