Battle to ban Roundup: Government rows back on banning chemical used in growing food crops

The Department of Agriculture had decided to halt use of glyphosate on food crops pending review, in line with Brussels. Why the change of heart, asks Caroline O’Doherty.

THE local authority official from Ballaghaderreen wrote to the Department of Agriculture to advise that regional councillors had voted to call for a ban on the use of a controversial chemical, but what he got back was a lecture on semantics.

Denis Kelly, acting director of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, fell foul of the department’s linguistic police by using the term ‘weedkiller’ in his letter.