PW12 Pesticide II
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Wednesday
(PW191) National Agri-Environmental Standards Initiative - Pesticide Environmental Performance Standards for Canada.
Bacchus, P.C.B1, Caux, P.-Y.1, Jiapizian, P.1, 1 Environment Canada, Environmental Conservation Service, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
ABSTRACT- The Agricultural Policy Framework (APF) is a federal-provincial-territorial initiative for the implementation of a five-year national program to ensure the Canadian agriculture and agri-food industry is the world leader in food safety and quality, environmentally responsible production, and innovation. Within this, the National Agri-Environmental Standards Initiative (NAESI) led by Environment Canada aims to develop environmental standards for implementation at the farm level through best management practices leading to certification of Canadian agriculture practices and continued access to international markets. Ultimately, standards will be developed to specify desired levels of environmental quality required of agriculture, and for validating best management practices. Areas for standard development include pesticides, air, water, and biodiversity. Under the pesticide theme, the goal is to produce Environmental Performance Standards (EPS) for priority pesticides, for pesticides in commodities and for unwanted pesticide characteristics. In order to accomplish this, a sector analysis and a risk determination is being performed to find out where the high risk areas are, what components of the ecosystem are at risk and what priority pesticides need to be addressed. Upon completion of this step, Ideal and Achievable Performance Standards (IPS & APS) will be developed. IPS development will be based on toxicity data whereas APS will be based on technological and socio-economic inputs. The final component of the process will be the production of a report on the recommended Environmental Performance Standards along with timeframes and recommendations for development and implementation of tools and techniques (e.g., modelling to specific farm allocations) to achieve these.
Key words: APF, pesticides, NAESI, EPS