You couldn't make it up. At their Council Summit on June 19, Europe's leaders pledged to tackle the causes of rising food prices. Yet a few days later, EU farm ministers signed off new pesticide 'cut-off' approval measures which will hit crop yields and increase food costs still further.

This is despite the fact that pesticides are the most highly regulated sector of the chemical industry.

The consequences of these measures have been assessed by the UK Pesticide Safety Directorate (PSD) as being potentially disastrous to UK agriculture and food production.

The PSD estimates that if the European Commission's (EC's) proposals are implemented the UK will lose around 15% of its current approved plant protection products resulting in a 20-30% reduction in arable yields.

To make matters worse, the European Parliament is seeking to include additional cut off measures, which will remove up to 85% of plant protection products, leaving many sectors of UK agriculture no longer economically viable.

In recent weeks the Food and Drink Federation has demanded an EU-wide impact assessment of the proposals before they proceed any further. This needs to be the start of a wider EU campaign by the food and drink manufacturing sector aimed at ministers, MEPs and the EC. It's time to stop this process.

Dominic Dyer is chief executive of the Crop Protection Association. dominic@cropprotection.org.uk