Canada is set to allow greater amounts of pesticide residue on fruit and vegetables because our stricter regulations pose a potential "trade irritant" to US producers. The change in policy will affect hundreds of products.

The move is part of an effort to harmonize Canadian pesticide rules with those of the United States, which allows higher residue levels for 40 per cent of the pesticides it regulates....

Canadian regulators and their U.S. counterparts have been working to harmonize their pesticide regulations since 1996, as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

This at a time when municipalities throughout Canada are fighting for - and winning - the right to restrict the use of toxic pesticides in their communities, the most recent of which was the high profile court battle in Toronto. In 2005, Toronto finally received the legal go ahead to reduce the non-essential use of pesticides when the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the pesticide industry's final court challenge. Now the government of Canada is set to loosen the reigns on pesticide control on the food we eat to accommodate American trade interests. Welcome to the world of free trade and blurred borders.

Brilliant....just bloody brilliant.