Campaigners call for ban on use of weedkiller glyphosate at harvest time

Campaigners call for ban on use of weedkiller glyphosate at harvest time17 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleAnna LamcheGettyCampaigners are calling for a ban on the use of the weedkiller glyphosate to dry crops at harvest time because of concerns about its impact on human health.Some farmers argue the chemical is necessary but the Soil Association warns that its use as a drying agent leaves residues in foods such as bread, breakfast cereals and beer.Some scientific studies have suggested possible links between glyphosate use and cancer and other illnesses.The government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will soon launch a consultation on whether to allow its use on crops beyond December 2026, when the licence to use the chemical is set to expire.Use of glyphosate as a pre-harvest drying agent was banned in the EU in 2023, and campaigners are now calling on the UK government to do the same. The chemical is still licensed for other uses on the continent.On Wednesday, the Soil Association launched a campaign to end its use as a pre-harvest desiccant [drying agent] in the UK, ahead of the HSE's consultation later this year.Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, farmer and founder of Riverford Organic Farmers Guy Singh-Watson said the campaign was not seeking an outright ban on the product in the UK.Instead, he said the UK should ban the practice of spraying glyphosate "onto crops just days before they're harvested, in the full knowledge that traces of that chemical are going to end up in our bread, in our breakfast cereals, in our beer."He said the use of glyphosate to dry crops was a "relatively modern practice", adding: "To say that it's essential to the growing of wheat, I'm afraid, is... not true."Roundup weedkiller, which contains glyphosate, was originally developed by Monsanto in the 1970s. Its patent expired in 2000 and the chemical is now sold by various manufacturers.Bayer, the Germ...