Glyphosate

Heard this ealier today on Radio 4 "The European food safety authority has now stated that glyphosate is "safe" and unlikely to be a health hazard to humans."

 

Just as long as you dont drink it.

 

There is controversy because in the US they use huge quantities of it, combined with other more potent chemicals, and they spray food crops with loads of it just prior to harvest, as doing so increases crop yield for grain as the plant increases seed growth in a last ditch attempt to ensure survival. This practice means that grain in the US often has very high levels of chemical residue. All of this gets blamed specifically on glyphosate by those that only look at the headlines.

 

What alternative is there to Glyphosate? I don't think there is anything else on the market that can tackle the tougher weeds.

 

Effective yes but "safe" nae chance. Some bod has been given a " research grant " from a pharma on the understanding the end recomendation will say its "safe".

 

The makers and patent owners of glyphosate, Monsanto, is indeed a dubious company with very questionable morals, but the glyphosate debate has been flogged to death. Several independent groups have tested it. Of all the ones I've seen, only one report questions it's safety, on the basis that large amounts of residue were found in food, but there was nothing that said the food was toxic, and it was where very dubious farming practices are commonplace.

You'd probably do your health more harm thinking about it and stressing than actually consuming the stuff.

 

So what happens to you long term when it gets into your lungs as you spray it and when its absorbed into your skin also ?
I use it myself but wouldnt kid myself that its "SAFE"

 

Anything that gets into your lungs repeatedly that shouldn't is dangerous. This includes bracken spores, fungal spores from the compost bin, volatile organic compounds from pine trees, and probably lots of other perfectly natural things.

Nothing is truly safe. Life is the most dangerous thing of all, it has a 100% record of being fatal. Glyphosate is as safe as anything that we would consider safe.

Sent from my HTC Desire 610 using Tapatalk

 

I caught a lung full of it when I was spraying once, I was really ill the next day

 

And if we were to stop eating everything that we are told is bad for us we wouldn't exist either. We all know the only way to get through life is common sense.

 

I somewhat reluctantly buy 5L containers of concentrated Glyphosate 360 to use when there's no other alternative/last resort, treat it as if it's a deadly poison, apply in advance as possible in the vicinity of food crops, only apply with a weedkiller bar on a watering can to avoid wind drift (although I'm not entirely sure about this as it means increased dosage/m2), avoid application when there's beneficial insects on the 'weeds' or anything else about that might be affected.

But I still feel a bit guilty about using it.

 

Monsanto have been some very dirty actions and court cases, with petitions about the decline do bees aimed at them being responsible.

 

I agree. But I thought the discussion was about glyphosate, not the company that makes it, or any of their other products.