BRITAIN'S favourite vegetable the carrot is under threat because insects are growing immune to pesticides, agricultural researchers are warning.
Insects are developing resistance to the chemicals that protect carrots, potatoes and other crops faster than new ones can be developed, said scientists from the IACR Rothamsted in Hertfordshire and the John Innes Centre in Norwich.
The new warning was revealed in a report on a workshop that was held to discuss the crisis that researchers from all over the country attended.
Professor Ian Crute, director of IACR Rothamsted, said: "Just as human health is under threat from antibiotic resistance, so crop health is under threat from insecticide resistance.
"The bugs are gaining on us and our defences are increasingly fragile."
A poll of 2,000 people, conducted in May, revealed clear divisions in the vegetable plot with carrots at the top of the popularity poll and Brussel sprouts the least favourite.
Part of the problem lies in the ability of insects to mutate rapidly into strains resistant to chemical controls.
In addition, many long-standing pesticides are being lost because of increasingly costly EU legislation.
The workshop concluded that the loss of pesticides could lead to a pest-control crisis for both organic and conventional agriculture.
August 19, 2002 15:30
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