EU: Last Chance for Glyphosate

Posted by Matt Hopkins|27 October 2017

Glyphosate has once again fallen foul of the European Parliament, where MEPs this week voted in favor of a resolution to have it phased out over a five-year period while the agrichemical industry is given extra funding to work on alternative herbicides, writes Gordon Davidson on TheScottishFarmer.co.uk.

Some Scots MEPs insisted that this five-year ‘last chance saloon’ for the manufacturers of Roundup was a better outcome than the immediate ban that had been sought by some factions of the parliament, but NFU Scotland found it hard to see the outcome as anything less than a disappointment.

NFUS had been hoping that member states would agree to renew the authorisation for glyphosate for a further 10 years at least, based on the ‘overwhelming scientific evidence’ that is is safe, effective and environmentally friendly.