16 March 2022
Pesticide-Free Cambridge gave a short presentation to Friends of Queen's Green AGM on the City Council's soon-to-be-launched herbicide-free two-ward trial, and a parallel scheme that will allow residents to adopt their street in a herbicide-free manner. We also said a few words about a new UCL project that one of us is involved with, on public perceptions of weeds, pests and pest-control with Cambridge as one of the main case-studies. Other discussion points included the relevance of urban pesticides for scholarly and activist discourse on urban nature, toxicity, biodiversity, climate change and air pollution, and ongoing issues surrounding the council's Herbicide Reduction Plan and street adoption plan that need to be ironed out: e.g., community conflict resolution over how adopted streets will be managed, how weeds versus urban plants that perform an essential role for pollinating insects, will be defined, how residents can report unauthorised use of herbicides by both council operatives and members of the public. We had a very interesting discussion afterwards and look forward to working more closely with members of the group and partner residents associations.
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