![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/70000/images/_73821_philip.jpg)
![image: [ Prince Phillip has failed to get the answers he wants from the ministry ]](/olmedia/70000/images/_73821_prince_phillip_300.jpg)
Even though the Royal Family is not supposed to get involved in politics, a Sunday newspaper is to report that the Duke of Edinburgh has been involved in the dispute, which started with the death of 16 pheasants at the royals' Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Christopher Booker, a journalist who specialises in stories about organophosphates (OPs), was recently contacted by the Duke of Edinburgh, who had apparently become frustrated by his inability to get answers from the ministry.
"Back in 1991, 16 pheasants on the royal estate at Sandringham were found dead," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"It was discovered they had been poisoned by these organo phosphorous pesticides because the birds had eaten some newly sown wheat which had been treated with these OPs.
"Over the next seven years, right up to the present day, Prince Philip and the Sandringham estate have found it absolutely impossible to get a proper answer from the ministry as to how and why they can approve the use of these chemicals when it turns out they can be absolutely deadly to wildlife."
The wheat treated with OPs had been sown by a tenant farmer on the estate, and the ministry's first move was to bring a criminal charge against him.
He was taken to court for not burying the pesticide at least three inches below the surface, but when the case came to court in 1993 it was dismissed.
MAFF initially told Prince Philip that the chemical, Fonofos, had been licensed because it met legal requirements, but the details of the data on which the licence was granted were confidential.
Eventually the estate received a letter from MAFF saying that Fonofos could only be used under strict conditions.
These included the wearing of full protective clothing and keeping livestock out of areas grown with treated seed for at least six weeks following sowing.
The Sunday Telegraph says the Duke believes it bizarre that the ministry could make an implicit admission that a chemical legally used all over Britain is deadly to wildlife, while at the same time dismissing any risk as a matter of a few trivial incidents.
MAFF says there have only been six incidents of wildlife poisoning involving Fonofos. However, the Sunday Telegraph article says it is surprising that even this many landowners have reported incidents since doing so risks prosecution.
What are Organophosphates?
Florida Agricultural Information Retrieval Organophosphates page
The Royal Family
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
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