Yes, different biostimulants can reduce crop susceptibility of infection from disease or predation from insect pests.

Whether this be from a natural soil rhizobacteria, which colonises the soil to out compete damaging diseases or stimulates a plants own natural defence to fight off disease, to foliar biostimulants, which support cell function while under biotic stress or increases the natural strength of the plant tissues so diseases and pest find it very difficult to live on them.

Our opinion is no, we should not. The BBESG believe that reducing the reliance on agrochemicals and increasing the efficiency of crops under a changing climate for a growing population is crucial.

Natural biostimulants play an important role in this regard, increasing production at a relatively low cost, sustainably. If regulation is brought in without consideration, under the lobbying of the agrochemical industry, for natural biostimulants it will reduce innovation in this sector and will dramatically increase development cost.

This will then increase cost on farm which will limit their use reducing efficacy. Plus smaller companies will think twice about developing products at all.

We believe that natural products, harvested and processed without chemical intervention should be exempt from regulation and placed on an approved inputs list.

Yes, we do.  In fact, seaweeds are used throughout the food, fashion, cosmetics and medicine industries.

In food it is used in soups, in wrapping sushi and is used in the preparation of many tea infusions. We also extract a polysaccharide called Carrageenan’s from seaweed, which is a widely used food additive as a natural gelling or emulsifying agent. In the fashion industry it is sued as a natural dye, in cosmetics as restorative skin treatments.

Seaweed is also used in medicines as a natural herbal remedy against many disorders and is now even used in immunotherapy for breast cancer as they are known to inhibit cancer cell growth. In regards regulation the BBESG believes very strongly that these natural products when used to support plants should not be regulated.  

Seaweeds are classified as macroalgae. There are currently no known poisonous or toxic seaweeds in existence. There are a few seaweeds that produce acid (acidweed), but these are no more acidic than your own stomach acid and would not harm you if consumed.

As biostimulants seaweed extracts are used in highly dilute forms to stimulate natural plant growth, viogour and defences – thus minimising the need for pesticides and reducing need for additional fertilisers.

So did we.

By essentially rolling over the same heavyweight legislation about to be adopted in the EU (and supported by the EU pesticide lobby) we will be condeming UK farming to continued use of pesticides and much slower adoption of sustainable environmental practices.

These rules will affect Organic Farming and Conventional Farming alike.

Yes, this is their stated aim.

But it seems that one part of Government isn’t talking to the other and the legislative fetishists are tantalised by the prospect of imposing yet more regulations upon us.

Either that, or they simply don’t understand the implications of their proposed actions.

No. Biostumulant products only contain microbes found commonly in nature.

All the microbes used in biostimulant products belong to the safest category of microbes, European Federation of Biotechnologies Class1 defined as: “Micro-organisms that have never been identified as causative agents of disease in man and that offer no threat to the environment.” This is a globally harmonised classification on safety which assesses microbes based upon their pathogenicity and impact on the environment. Microbes in this category also include those used to make beer, wine, bread, probiotic drinks, blue-veined cheeses and other fermented food products.

No. All the biostimulant products described here are found widely in nature and do not harm pollinating insects.

Soils that have been intensively managed over many years often lack the organic matter and microbiology that plants have evolved to rely on to maximise healthy growth. A healthy balanced soil with a diverse microbial ecology is vital in maximising a soil’s ability to function as a long-term store of carbon and retain water to reduce flooding. Using biostimulants to create a healthier soil is one way agriculture is not only successfully reducing its carbon footprint but also helping to assimilate other sources of carbon emissions.

Plants rely on a diverse and healthy soil microbiome to optimise their potential for healthy growth. This interaction with microbiology is very similar to that of our own gut microbiome, which is also made up of a rich diversity of beneficial microbes and which research is revealing plays a vital role in our own health.

Although adding organic materials to the soil will stimulate useful microbiology, the optimum diversity of microbes in intensively managed or degraded soils cannot easily be encouraged to grow naturally in the time of the relatively short growing cycle of commercial crops.

Logically no, as they would fit the regulated criteria. However, it is unlikely that this would be regulated or enforced in practice.

Crazy isn’t it.