Vice President's Blog - 14 December 2011

I will share with you my response to a member in light of an Argentinean article on the use of glyphosate or Roundup.

The article is at the following link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106159

It is a good article.
 
It shows that pesticides without rules can be potentially dangerous. Argentina's farmers need the basic Voluntary Initiative rules in place in the UK that make the operators of the sprayers safe and then that should have the very necessary spin off to safeguard everyone else without going for an absolute ban.

Roundup ready GM crops are the safest environmentally friendly crops to grow because they reduce the need for a whole range of Plant Protection Products to one very safe product  - Roundup.

 "But the Argentinean commission produced no results, and Monsanto insists that, with proper precautions, the herbicide is not toxic."  This is a key quote in the article.  No one trusts Monsanto and they obviously trust their government even less and because of this the use of Roundup can be blamed for every problem in the country.  The environmental organisations and world media are only too happy to fan the flames. 

The government of Argentina must make a move to bring in rules that brings their farms (and therefore their exporting crops) to equal the standard in place in the EU which is of very strict licensing of PPP products and education of operators of sprayers and MOT's of the sprayers to be fit for purpose. 

With the forth coming MERCOSUR trade agreement it must be declared that the South American countries must have procedures in place to develop their agriculture to the accepted standards that the EU market requires - such as safe to eat and safe to the environment - if they want to enter our markets our consumers expect no less. 

Remember Chinese milk powder!