On Tuesday 24 January, there was an Official Hearing of the Save Bees and Farmer European Citizens Initiative at the European Parliament. Our project leader Violette Geissen, was also present to speach during the hearing about the first SPRINT results. "Pesticide residues are omni-present in ecosystems and humans. Most of the residues are hazardous. What is the real risk of being exposed to mixtures of high numbers of pesticides? Who has the answer to this? Nobody."

The movie below will show an impression of the hearing. (Violette is seen from 3:20 onwards)

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Agricultural pesticides are often applied on or close to soils. As a result, pesticide residues are often present in soils to varying extents. This makes it important to build an understanding of how these residues may affect the health of both the soil and the species that live within it. Understanding how pesticides affect the health of soil-dwelling organisms is of great importance to us here at SPRINT and is one of our key areas of research.  

Read more: Celebrating World Soil Day: SPRINT soil-based experiments

We are pleased to share two new videos from the SPRINT project, filmed during our recent plenary meeting.

In the first video, Ana Cehic Maric explains why her family farm continues to rely on pesticides as they ensure good yields. Meanwhile, in our second video, Michael and Jolanta Pavlovic discuss how and why they decided to become an organic olive grove. 

Click on the thumbnails below to access the videos.