Glyphosate

The future of Glyphosate is back in the news again.  Following the EU Commission’s 18-month extension to the herbicides’s licence and a number of studies showing glyphosate to be non-carcinogenic, an MEP has said it could be banned by 2017.  Merja Kyllonen, one of the MEPs involved in its re-authorisation has said that the ‘precautionary principle’ must be applied.  She has dismissed the European Food Safety Agency’s study as not being convincing enough and agrees with the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s conclusion that Glyphosate was ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ and therefore, until there is concrete proof that it is not carcinogenic,  it should be banned under the precautionary principle.  It looks like this argumentis set to run, but with Glyphosate being such an important component in farmers’ ‘chemical toolbox’ it is very concerning.