9.3 The precautionary principle

Both cocoa producing and consuming countries should benefit from the ‘precautionary principle’ as an approach to public safety and crop sustainability. 

Slogans such as the “Green Deal” and “From Farm To Fork” are used to raise public awareness of important issues that range from the safety of a single rural child to threats of climate change. 

We suggest that the challenges and discrepancies are essentially derived from practical measures that should be soluble, given: 

• awareness of the real technical issues (a purpose of this manual) and available alternatives,
• good governance, and
• an effective feedback mechanism where both producers and consumers are aware of each other’s needs and expectations. 

For example, a truly “green deal” will only become reality if alternative pest management measures work well for the farmers who have to implement them. Chemicals remain an important part of the IPM mix simply because cocoa is not ready for a 100% biocontrol strategy, and biocontrol only remains a component of IPM. 

Furthermore, lumping together chemicals as probably hazardous in nature can only be described as a struthious approach. 

Failure to confront the needs of consumers, genuinely concerned about residues in their food, farmers potentially facing more than 50% crop losses and the risks to children and bystanders in rural producer communities, should never be an option.