I can't help but view the announcement of a provincewide ban on the use of pesticides for "cosmetic uses" as nothing more than another egregious example of a political party attempting to buy popularity amongst the voters.

While the ban now removes the general public's ability to purchase pesticides, it also takes them out of the hands of licensed professional applicators. The lawn care industry has evolved and long gone are the days of blanket spraying and the unnecessary or overuse of pesticides; this is irresponsible and unprofitable. What our government is overlooking is that pesticides help preserve our green space, an ever-shrinking luxury in our urban environment.

Environmentalists argue that pesticides are unnatural. I argue that amongst the buildings, roads, and gridlock of motor vehicles, there is nothing natural about the make-up of our cities. Our provincial government is doing little to protect or preserve green space.

As a result, parks, sports fields and other natural areas are greatly overused and are more susceptible to weed invasion and insect damage. A close parallel can be drawn to farming where prime agricultural land has been consumed by urban sprawl and farmers are required to produce higher yields on less land.

Not only is the urban environment unnatural, so are some of its prime pests. The Japanese beetle and European chafer, better known as white grubs in their larval stage, are highly destructive "import" pests with a voracious appetite for turf and no natural enemies to keep their populations in check.

Our primary defenses against these insects are insecticides, the most notable being Merit.

It's worth noting that agriculture accounts for 85 per cent of all pesticide use, most of which is for food production. It's quite an oxymoron of policy to deem these products safe for use in the production of our food yet unsafe for use on lawns, parks, and sports fields.

The topic of pesticide bans is generally fuelled by emotion and lack of public knowledge, strongly driven by environmental groups and media hype. It's a shame that our government now sets its policies based on such criteria.