Syngenta CEO wants debate on ‘sustainable agriculture’

Syngenta’s CEO is calling for “honest and open” discussions between NGOs and the industry, instead of debates that were politicized and unscientific. Syngenta CEO Eryk Fyrwald thinks there should be a wide-scale debate on what constitutes “sustainable agriculture” in face of a number of current controversies over pesticides.“We have a lot of discussions about specific products. I think it’s really important to step back and have a real discussion with the government, and with NGOs and academics about what is a sustainable agriculture,” Fyrwald told AFP (a global news agency based in France) in an interview.Fyrwald said he agrees with the definition of sustainable agriculture recently put forward by French minister Stephane Travert: “The objective is to have affordable food with tools that are safe for the farmers, for consumers, and good for environment.”In a recent debate with environment minister Nicolas Hulot, Travert had said he was open to the use of neonicotinoid pesticides—one of which is manufactured by Syngenta—to protect crops where there are currently no alternatives in order to maximise yields.