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LISA MULLINS: I'm Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. Europe is poised to adopt some of the world's toughest controls on pesticides. The new regulations would phase out two dozen chemicals that are currently used in agriculture. And the rules would tighten the standards for approving other pesticides. The move by the European Union is meant to protect the health of agricultural workers and consumers. But the makers and users of many pesticides warn that the chemical ‘Black List' would put the squeeze on Europe's food supply. The World's Gerry Hadden tells us about a European food fight.

GERRY HADDEN: Farmer Inma Rosell stacks crates of tomatoes and winter onions on her small, organic farm outside the town of Mataro, Spain. Her crops are chemical free, and she says she's sure that the industrial pesticides used on giant farms elsewhere hurt people. She says, “Above all, when you're talking about lettuce and other vegetables that you eat raw, it can be very bad for you. Even for the farmer,” she adds. “On neighboring farms, when they apply the pesticides, farmhands have fallen sick. I consider such pesticides to be basically poison.” So now, does the European Union. After batting what they call a “black list” of pesticides for nearly three years, the EU's parliament has reached agreement on banishing them from farms from Ireland to Romania. When the deal was struck, European Commission spokeswoman Antonia Mockin called these roughly two dozen substances the most dangerous to people. Among them, she said, are chemicals –

MOCKIN: That cause cancer, that disrupt the bodies internal systems, reproductive or otherwise. And we need to make sure that farmers, they're as protected as possible.

HADDEN: Most European farmers have accepted the proposal bans, but a small vocal group of farmers are still fighting against them. Farmer Sarah Petett mass produces brussel sprouts and carrots in Lincolnshire, in central England. She argues that without the controversial chemicals, she'd be out of business.

PETETT: Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and onions, and a number of other crops could just not be grown in this country. It would not be possible to produce the quality healthy food that we currently produce at the prices that consumers are currently enjoying.

HADDEN: European pesticide manufactures echo these dire predictions. Phil Newton, a spokesman for the European Crop Protection Association, says the EU didn't look at the wider impact of the proposed changes.

NEWTON: There was no look at farm economy. There was no look at the effect on prices, and there was no look at the effect on human health in terms of mainly fruit and vegetable no longer being available.

HADDEN: Opponents like Newton argue that the new bans would mean the end of agriculture as Europe has come to know it. And on this point, even some supporters of the new rules agree – though their message is optimistic.

FELDMAN: We know that there are less toxic approaches and non-toxic approaches.

HADDEN: Jay Feldman is with the Washington DC based organization Beyond Pesticides.

FELDMAN: Understand that we're not talking about a replacement product swap. We're talking about different systems, agricultural systems. We're talking about changes in cultural practices, manure based systems, different types of tilling and fertilization. So the shift means a shift in practices, not just products.

HADDEN: Feldman says Europe's new rules raise the bar on agricultural chemicals well beyond current standards in the EU and elsewhere. In the US, pesticides are evaluated for health and environmental risks based on levels of exposure. Even if a chemical is hazardous, the reasoning goes, the risk is limited if exposure is limited. Until now, Europe used the same regulatory philosophy. But British toxicologist Vyvyan Howard says its reasoning is flawed. Howard served on the UK's Pesticides Regulatory Commission. He also studies the effects of low-level chemical exposure on human fetuses.

HOWARD: What we're finding is you can get effects with some of these man-made hormone disrupting chemicals in doses a thousand times lower dosage than what you'd need to produce effects in an adult. And these are effects that have consequences later on in life. They probably predispose you to cancer.

HADDEN: And there's another concern. Howard says that until now, pesticides have generally been tested for toxicity one at a time. But in the real world, pesticides get mixed together, and Howard says many scientists are worried that those mixtures could be even more potent.

HOWARD: You know, we don't really have the tools for testing complex mixtures. They do not exist. Toxicologists can take a stab at testing them one at a time but soon as we go to two at a time, it gets very complicated.

HADDEN: There are literally thousands of chemicals used in different pesticides in Europe. Over time, the new restrictions will remove some of those from the market as well. But European Commission spokeswoman Antonia Mockin stresses that the likely ban on the 24 black listed chemicals won't leave farmers high and dry.

MOCKIN: We've got six or eight years to develop those alternatives before these rules come into effect. And in the final analysis, the regulation does allow that in the case of serious crop health problems, then the use of pesticides that would otherwise not be allowed under the regulations can be allowed in these circumstances. So there is a safeguard clause, if you like.

HADDEN: Mockin says the EU is simply making sure the most dangerous agricultural weapons are very difficult to use. But opponents of the new regulations still have a chance to plead their case. Although they easily passed the European Parliament, the new pesticide rules still have to be approved by the governments of each EU member state. For The World, I'm Gerry Hadden, Mataro, Spain.

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