The global war on glyphosate has arrived in Australia.
Our media has been closely following media coverage of the recent court cases in the United States, in which plaintiffs have received multi-million dollar awards in their lawsuits against the maker of the world’s most widely-used crop-protection product—and in defiance of what the science actually tells us about the safety of this agricultural tool.
Much is at stake …. If farmers like me were to lose access to this crop-protection product, two things would happen.
[Editor’s note: Andrew Weidemann is a farmer based in Rupanyup, Victoria, Australia]
First, we’d have a lot more weeds to deal with, which would rob resources from fewer crops—and the price of food for everyone, including people who struggle to feed their families, would rise.
Second, we’d most likely have to revert to the past’s full cultivation practices that are less effective in managing weeds …. In the end, we’d burn more fuel (creating new greenhouse gases) and till the land (leading to increased soil erosion).
…
The crop-protection deniers, in fact, look a lot like the climate deniers: They are an outspoken minority that rejects what the science really tells us about the world ….
Read full, original article: Much at Stake: the War on Glyphosate Threatens Australia Agriculture
