Time to ban glyphosate?

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1,311
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North Canterbury
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Until there’s a decent alternative we are stuck with it.
It’s a real battle trying to avoid the stuff with back country farms down here seeing huge pasture improvement year on year.. glyphosate is a massive tool in the box.
Cereal crops down south were not that long ago sprayed with it to kill the plant pre harvest.. now it’s tested for they are using another brew to get the job done..
 
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Christchurch
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Until it’s gone, there is no commercial incentive to replace it.

Until it’s gone there will be no reason the buy the inevitably more expensive alternative. I guarantee sales go up the minute a ban is announced.
 
5
10
Rocky Gully Western Australia
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International
Until there’s a decent alternative we are stuck with it.
It’s a real battle trying to avoid the stuff with back country farms down here seeing huge pasture improvement year on year.. glyphosate is a massive tool in the box.
Cereal crops down south were not that long ago sprayed with it to kill the plant pre harvest.. now it’s tested for they are using another brew to get the job done..
There are plenty more herbicides in the weed control tool box depending on the situation but unfortunately they are often more toxic to bees such as paraquat (non selective used in similar cereal cropping situations to glyphosate) and 24D, selective for broard leaf weeds. Pity Japan seems to be following Europe in ruling by public perception rather than science. Cereal croppers reliance on round-up is perhaps not ideal but is lesser of the evils and better for the soil and co2 emissions than old-school plough and plough again. Way more complex than just saying ban it there are allways unintended concequences. A bit hesitant sticking my head over the parapet in this controversial matter but being a farmer and bee keeper I have a fair bit of skin in the game.
 

Sailabee

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Reality is that while Germany has theoretically banned the use of glyphosate, Bayer has bought Monsanto so they can continue to manufacture it in the USA.
 
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maungaturoto
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Reality is that while Germany has theoretically banned the use of glyphosate, Bayer has bought Monsanto so they can continue to manufacture it in the USA.
???
correct me if i'm wrong but i thought monsanto stopped making glyphosate a long time ago. its made by a wide range of companies these days. i would guess a ton of competition so very little profit.
 

Grant

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I would think the evidence speaks for itself. Monsanto UK, with @Bayer copyright at the bottom of the page.
 
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Grant

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Reality is that while Germany has theoretically banned the use of glyphosate, Bayer has bought Monsanto so they can continue to manufacture it in the USA.
Monsanto secretly funded academic studies indicating “very severe impacts” on farming and the environment if its controversial glyphosate weedkiller were banned, an investigation has found.

The research was used by the National Farmers’ Union and others to successfully lobby against a European ban in 2017. As a result of the revelations, the NFU has now amended its glyphosate information to declare the source of the research.

Monsanto was bought by the agri-chemical multinational Bayer in 2018 and Bayer said the studies’ failure to disclose their funding broke its principles. However, the authors of the studies said the funding did not influence their work and the editor of the journal in which they were published said the papers would not be retracted or amended.

 
1,311
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Cereal croppers reliance on round-up is perhaps not ideal but is lesser of the evils and better for the soil and co2 emissions than old-school plough and plough again.
Totally agree, the battle is real when trying to avoid it contaminating the food product I produce as each December around honey harvest time the cocky wants the chopper in the air as he begins to turn another block on the station into lush pasture.. he has a farm to run, stock to fatten, improvements to make and the last thing on his mind is the millions of little pollinators at work in the chain.
chemicals are so widely used in all food sectors and at all points of production it appears we are just at the beginning on this topic now out in the public.
 
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Mauku
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I have looked at this for sometime.
An outright Ban in NZ is most unlikely because it is widely used for higher value crops than honey.

Controlled use of glyphosate is a more likely option. But to put this into practice we need a lot more research.
  1. We have a lot of hypothesis's out there on how glyphosate gets into honey - but no one has researched them to identify the correct ones.
  2. We do not know how much is used in NZ and where it is used? All we know it is widely used.
  3. MPI and EPA do not collect data on how much is imported and by whom and which farmers are using the product and for what it is used for.
  4. We have to rely on overseas data - here are 3 interesting studies;
    1. 98% of all honey samples found to contain glyphosate in Canada - Weed killer residues found in 98 percent of Canadian honey samples https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19440049.2019.1577993?journalCode=tfac20
    2. 27% of honey samples in Kaua'i island showed glyphosate residues. Road side and golf course spraying were the most likely sources. Glyphosate residue concentrations in honey attributed through geospatial analysis to proximity of large-scale agriculture and transfer off-site by bees
    3. Europe has done some sampling and analysis - Glyphosate: safety of residue levels reviewed
  5. It is about time MPI and EPA begin researching the likely pathways for this herbicide to enter our honey. Bayer will not be doing it as glyphosate is of patent and they have shutdown their bee research centre to save cash, which is being lost with the purchase of Monsanto. The other importers of this off patent commodity just want to sell it.
  6. Beekeepers did not subscribe to a bee research levy.
  7. Is there a big funder for this project out there who may have recently won lotto....
For those who are regularly testing honey, would you be able to share a copy of your lab test data results with the Apiculture NZ Science & research Focus Group. We could use this to gather information of the extent of the problem in NZ honey.
Love to hear from you.
 
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Glyphosate has a license in the EU until December 2022. It's use is being reviewed; one of the reviewing countries is France and France has already put in a partial ban, so I expect that it will be banned by the end of next year. There is some thought that the UK might allow it to be used until 2025.
 
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Mauku
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In Europe there is much more information on how much of each agrichemical is used and on what crop it is used. The Netherlands has even more detailed information. In NZ we have none of that data collection. For the EPA reassessment of neonicotinoids the EPA had to ask the Ag Chem industry to provide information on the amount used and what crops it is used on - we are waiting for the EPA to make this public.

I am surprised no one is offering their glyphosate lab test data results to date. If we have access to this data in a sufficient sample size we can use our bees foraging efforts to survey glyphosate use throughout the country. This would be helpful in discussions with MPI.
 
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Bay of Plenty
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In Europe there is much more information on how much of each agrichemical is used and on what crop it is used. The Netherlands has even more detailed information. In NZ we have none of that data collection. For the EPA reassessment of neonicotinoids the EPA had to ask the Ag Chem industry to provide information on the amount used and what crops it is used on - we are waiting for the EPA to make this public.

I am surprised no one is offering their glyphosate lab test data results to date. If we have access to this data in a sufficient sample size we can use our bees foraging efforts to survey glyphosate use throughout the country. This would be helpful in discussions with MPI.
Hi Don
Had all my last year honey and some older honey from a last couple of years tested, a mix of areas from Taupo to Taranaki, all from hives that went into Kiwifruit pollination. 10 tests all tested <0.010 mg/kg for all Glyphosate, Glufosinate and Aminomethyl phosphonic acid.
 
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Mauku
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Hi Don
Had all my last year honey and some older honey from a last couple of years tested, a mix of areas from Taupo to Taranaki, all from hives that went into Kiwifruit pollination. 10 tests all tested <0.010 mg/kg for all Glyphosate, Glufosinate and Aminomethyl phosphonic acid.
Many thanks Dennis, that is the start of the info that we should be gathering.
Like to compare with results from say Hawkes Bay, Canterbury where extensive cropping is practiced.
 
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maungaturoto
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Many thanks Dennis, that is the start of the info that we should be gathering.
Like to compare with results from say Hawkes Bay, Canterbury where extensive cropping is practiced.
i asked about this today.
about 2/3rds of ours its been detected and its all within 0.01 and 0.02. (detectable limit is 0.01)
not much of a surprise considering our area. we don't have large bush areas.

tho it would be interesting to see what happens with a lot of the planted manuka sites as they are often on working farms.
edit: it would be interesting to go test organic honey. i bet a lot of "organic" honey has it to.
 
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I quote from the Farmers Weekly Feb 1 2021....Hamish Marr, Nuffield Scholar says "It's (glyphosate) a good tool and it deserves some respect. If we lose the use of glyphosate the consequences are dire".

"Marr says this was reinforced when he presented his Nuffield findings at a primary industry conference before christmas. Fellow speaker and regenerative farmer Hamish Bielski recounted his continuing reliance on the spray as a less impactful weed controller than physical cultivation, with the accompanying soil disturbance and erosion risks".

As Marr says...."when regenerative farmers are saying how important it is(glyphosate) then it is extra important that we look after it."
 
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