Don't ask growers to go greener...
...while keeping the toolbox locked
Europe has spent years telling growers to change. Use fewer chemical pesticides. Produce more sustainably. Protect biodiversity. Keep production affordable. Stay competitive. Adapt to climate change.
In short: do more, with less, and do it faster. That ambition is right. But there is a problem Europe can no longer ignore: many of the biological crop protection solutions that can help deliver this transition are still trapped in approval systems designed for another era. In practice, safer and more targeted alternatives can take eight to ten years to reach the field. By the time innovation arrives, the pest pressure, the climate reality and the grower’s problem have already moved on. This is the uncomfortable paradox at the heart of European agricultural policy. It asks growers to move towards more sustainable production, but does not give them timely access to the tools that make it possible.
The European Commission’s Food and Feed Safety Simplification Package offers a chance to correct this. It proposes faster market access for biocontrol and other innovative solutions, without compromising Europe’s high standards for health, safety and the environment. It is about recognising that biological products are not the same as conventional synthetic pesticides and that they need an assessment process that reflects their risk profile. Europe can protect high standards without slowing innovation.
Growers have shown that productivity and sustainability can go hand in hand.
Peter Maes Director Sustainability and External Affairs, Koppert
What does ‘Omnibus’ mean?
In EU policymaking, an omnibus package brings together proposed changes to several related pieces of legislation. The Food and Feed Safety Simplification Package, sometimes referred to as the Food and Feed Safety Omnibus, covers several areas, including plant protection products, pesticide residues, biocidal products and feed additives.
The horticulture sector already proves what is possible. In Dutch greenhouse production, biological control is not a niche experiment; it is daily practice. At Koppert, we see every day how growers use beneficial insects and naturally occurring microorganisms at scale to manage pests, reduce reliance on conventional chemicals and support resilient production systems. Growers have shown that productivity and sustainability can go hand in hand. But even these frontrunners need more biological solutions. Too often, promising innovations remain stuck in a regulatory queue while growers face immediate pressure from pests, resistance and stricter market requirements. This is not simply precaution; it is a bottleneck. Other regions are moving faster. In countries such as Brazil, biological products can reach farmers in roughly two years. And when effective alternatives become available, adoption can be rapid, as seen in crops such as soy, maize and sugar cane. Europe should not copy other systems blindly, but it should ask itself a serious question: if others can accelerate access without compromising oversight, why can’t Europe? The Food and Feed Safety Omnibus debate is becoming polarised, particularly around conventional crop protection. Those concerns deserve scrutiny, but reducing the entire proposal to a simplistic choice between deregulation and safety would be a mistake. Faster access to biological solutions does not mean lowering standards. Europe can maintain high standards while making responsibly developed and properly assessed innovation available faster. Growers need effective tools, assessed rigorously and available when they need them.