Climate change and increased resistance to pesticides mean that native pests have a greater impact than ever, while new populations of invasive pests are finding their way into fields, says Juan Estupinan, CEO and president of Vestaron, who told Euractiv that EU countries need to change the classification of pesticides.

More Options for Farmers

Adding to the challenge, the increase in insect resistance to existing products, the banning of products deemed unsafe – whether for humans or the environment – and ambitions to reduce pesticide use mean that farmers not only have fewer crop protection products to work with, but they also have to use less.

While most European farmers would agree on the importance of reducing agriculture's environmental impact, the reality is that they have to do this while boosting crop production to meet the growing demand for food.

Achieving this depends on growers having access to more pest control options and urgently.

This is where new peptide-based products, which have efficacy against pests and a reduced environmental impact, need to get into the hands of growers, contributing to shaping a more sustainable future in European fields and greenhouses.

Peptides Making a Mark

The need for sustainability and efficacy in pest control drives our research at Vestaron. We produce cysteine-rich peptide biopesticides, modified from the venom of spiders and other venomous animals that have evolved to kill insects.

The origins are novel, but the reality is practical because these short chains of amino acids can replace traditional chemical insecticides on a one-to-one basis.

Replicated field tests have shown that the products offer comparable or better levels of efficacy against targeted pests while having a negligible impact on natural enemies and pollinators.

In the United States, our first commercially available insecticide, SPEAR®, was approved by the EPA's Emerging Technology branch in 2018 and has now been used on nearly three-quarters of a million acres of crops.

In March 2024, we received approval for a second bioinsecticide, BASIN™, in the US and Mexico, with more products in the pipeline. This is a pace of innovation commercialization not seen before in any class of molecules used in pest control.

However, getting SPEAR approved in Europe is more complicated.

Currently, there is no legal definition of biopesticides in EU legislation. In recent years, the Commission and member state regulators have considered ways to shorten approval timelines for certain pesticides based on microorganisms, plant extracts, and other nature-derived products.

In contrast, newer innovations like peptide products, also derived from nature, are only beginning to attract stakeholder attention.

EU regulators and policymakers must ensure that their actions in support of biopesticides remain open to peptide-based products and other future innovations.

Currently, even though peptide-based products are considered low-risk by other scientific and regulatory groups worldwide and have efficacy equivalent to traditional synthetic chemical pesticides, it is still unclear if they will be granted the same preferential treatment as other biologicals in the EU.

While the initial intentions of this policy are good, the results are somewhat limited in practice. If you do not fit into the very limited definition of a biological control, you are implicitly a chemical pesticide – the very category of products the EU is trying to limit.

As such, peptide products remain in limbo, having all the qualities and characteristics of a low-risk biological control agent but not yet clearly classified as such.

Accelerating Approvals for Nature-Based Solutions

Biocontrols can offer a variety of beneficial pest control options to supplement or even replace chemical pesticides. Growers need more of these tools in their toolbox than just traditional microbials and plant extracts covered by this initially narrow approach.

To help European farmers, we need to see a restructuring of the categories that define pest control products, as well as a new process to accelerate approvals for nature-based solutions.

This means setting aside synthetic crop protection products and considering biological products on their own terms.

In the United States, Vestaron products are treated differently because the science behind them is new and unique. They have the option for a fast-track approval alongside traditional biological products while still being held to rigorous health and environmental standards like synthetic pesticides.

A key part of a more efficient regulatory system in the US has been involving individuals with relevant scientific expertise in biological agents in the approval process for new crop protection products. Regulatory risk assessment for biologicals requires a different set of studies than typical toxicology tests, necessitating specific technical capability. Europe needs to catch up in this regard.

Change Comes Slowly

The fact that regulatory approaches have been modified to accommodate a limited subset of biological products indicates that the EU is willing to engage with this issue and work on the much-needed changes for the classification and approvals of biological products.

Indeed, in March, the European Commission presented ideas to simplify the regulatory framework around biotechnology in the EU, streamlining approval processes and allowing products to reach the market more quickly. Applying these objectives to biological products and other nature-based pesticides could be extremely beneficial for European farmers.

We know there is a strong need, as well as a strong desire, to bring new biopesticides to European growers.

To help achieve this in the current environment, Vestaron's strategy is twofold: engage with European policymakers to find a way to test and grant permanent approval for peptide-based biopesticides while supporting EU growers who seek emergency use authorization for our products in situations where existing options are not working.

At present, this means supporting Mediterranean tomato growers in their fight to control the tomato borer (Tuta absoluta) with our SPEAR® LEP product while working for similar emergency use authorizations against other problematic species.

Ultimately, however, European farmers need permanent solutions, and we hope that peptides can be the catalyst for opening the door for them to receive access to other technological innovations more easily and quickly than they can now. Many fruit and vegetable producers on the continent tell us they cannot wait much longer. (Photo: Dreamstime)