As developer of crop protection agents, Syngenta has to deal with the growing unrest about decreasing biodiversity. This has led to a change in direction for the company. The new course of Syngenta is that the company wants to be open to the issues of society, according to CEO Erik Fyrwald and Louise Fresco, who recently became commissioner with Syngenta, and is also connected to the Wageningen University & Research.
You can read the article in which the Financieel Dagblad is sparring with Fyrwald and Fresco about the nomenclature (pesticides or crop protection agents) and in which Fyrwald and Fresco explain the change in direction here.
One of the points discussed: the admission policy, which is too political, according to Fyrwald. "You should not only look at the individual products, but also to the bigger picture. If this agent disappears, will the growth become more sustainable?" Fresco: "If you prohibit crop protection agents, you have to have an alternative. Just prohibiting is acting like cultivation happens in a paradise, which is not realistic. Sometimes it's war between our plants and hungry insects."
