Farmers nervous at EU’s glyphosate licence delay
It had been expected that the renewal would be rubber stamped at a meeting of EU member state experts on 8 March.
But France, the Netherlands, and Italy were among countries to oppose that proposal.
The delay was triggered by the finding of glyphosate residues in various foods and drinks, and the earlier report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) which concluded glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
IARC is a subsidiary of the UN’s World Health Organisation.
Better known to farmers as Roundup, the brand name used by Monsanto since it patented glyphosate in the early 1970s, it is widely used by farmers worldwide, and IFA national grain committee chairman Liam Dunne warned last week said that failure to approve it in the EU, without alternative herbicides, would “deliver a killer blow to the Irish and wider EU tillage sector”.
“This has the potential to destroy the EU crop production sector in the near to medium term, thus leading to significant land abandonment,” said Mr Dunne.
When asked to renew EU licensing of glyphosate herbicide until 2031 without restrictions, the European Parliament’s environment committee voted against last week by 38 votes to 6, with 18 abstentions.
MEPs urged the European Commission to commission an independent review and disclose all the scientific evidence that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) used to assess and approve glyphosate.
Meanwhile, on the US front, Monsanto is pursuing legal action against the California office of environmental health hazard assessment to prevent the agency from adding glyphosate to its list of cancer-causing chemicals.
Global sales of glyphosate were about €7bn in 2014, 30% of the herbicide market.
