Martin wrote:
On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:09:04 +0100, "Jeff Layman"
wrote:

Martin wrote:
On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:35:02 +0100, "Spider"
wrote:


I'd generally agree with that, but I confess I've heard rumblings in
the undergrowth that, perhaps, glyphosate is not quite as safe as once
thought.

http://asgap.org.au/APOL20/dec00-3.html


You'd have thought that 9 years on something more definitive would be
known if there was something to find.


I still use it, though, and hope it will not be withdrawn. I hope
you're a brilliant scientist :~) and can confirm it is still safe to
use.

So long as you claim to be a commercial organic farmer you can use
almost anything at the discretion of the national government.
Conventional farmers will be far more limited in what they can use. A
few years of that and I can imagine that conventional farmed food being
safer.


But in the next stage, the EU will ban all insecticides, fungicides, and
herbicides. After a few years we will all have starved to death (is that
better than dying of an obesity epidemic?) or will be in thrall to the US
who will be supplying us with food. That food will, of course, contain a
vast number of chemicals as that will be the only way it will be
possible to produce a crop large enough to feed us. There's a certain
irony there...

To me the irony is that in some EU countries commercial organic farmers
will get a waiver to use 12 chemicals that are banned for use by
conventional farmers.

LoL! When the organic movement appeared I was at first very confused, as to
me "organic" meant chemicals produced by organic synthesis. As far as I was
concerned, chemical insecticides were definitely organic! Then I understood
the error of my ways. Now it seems the organic movement will be allowed to
use certain chemicals, so maybe I was right in the first place. ;-)


It's eight or nine years since the Dutch banned most conventional
chemicals, including copper, used in boat antifouling on the basis that
doing this will stimulate the development of alternatives. Of course,
commercial boats are excluded and no alternatives have appeared on the
market.

Why am I not surprised?

--
Jeff