Round Table on Responsible Soy Association

Pesticides Use

In order to continue improving and to revise usual practices for responsible soy production, in February 2012 the RTRS decided to create the Pesticide Use Working Group (PUWG). In May this year, the terms of reference were created and published on the web for those RTRS members wishing to be part of this new working group. The call was closed at the beginning of July and the group was formed by participants from different sectors involved in soy production and trading:

Constituency	Name	Organization
Producers	John Landers	APDC
	João Shimada	Maggi
	Alex Ehrenhaus	Los Grobo
Industry, Trade and Finance	Claes Johansson	Lantmannen
	Paula Mirabella	Syngenta
	Guillermo Prone	ACSOJA
Civil society organizations	Cassio Franco/Cynthia Moleta Cominesi	WWF
	Ben Hermans	Natuur en milieu
	Jan Heinrich	Humedales
	Harry Vandervliet	Solidaridad
Observers	Christel Cederberg	SIK
Observers	Jimena Frojan	RTRS

The first group meeting was held on August 27 under the coordination of Cecilia Gabutti –RTRS Associate Consultant- and its main focus was to give an overview of the use of pesticides. Additionally, the first objectives were outlined:

to present recommendations on the use of agrochemicals in soy production

to draft a proposal to revise the indicator related to the RTRS standard

to recommend measures for reducing the impact of agrochemical use on the environment and people.

On October will be the second meeting of PUWG. For any queries or questions about the group of pesticides, please contact the RTRS secretariat to technical.unit@responsiblesoy.org.