New studies on glyphosate show alarming issues....

[taff]

you just can't trust monsanto. At all. Especially hen they try and bribe/con/bully poorer countries into buying their seeds which are sterile, so they have to keep buying them.
They are an awful and yes, evil, company.

[snohare]

Same old, same old. The company says " we have this wonderfully safe new wonder product" and hey presto, it gets waved through on a nod and a handshake by revolving door consultants and lobbyist-fed ministers. Then twenty years down the line, suddenly it turns out all that twaddle about how biodegradable it is, so hotly denied by protesters at the outset, turns out to be wrong. That alone tells you that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, as simple gas chromatography should tell the tale, so something has happened to prejudice the process.

"In the late 1990s, a Swedish study published in the journal Cancer revealed links between glyphosate exposure and the development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer"

The Swedes are the world's best toxicologists. If they say it, you can take it to the bank.

I remember when I first started reading up on toxicology and environmental matters, just out of interest, I was amazed at the vitriol directed at companies such as Monsanto, Dow Chemicals, Hoffmann La Roche and the like; it really made me feel that the people saying such terrible things must be wild-eyed crazies with no ability to reason.
A couple of decades on, with most of my information having come from the wider scientific community, I still find myself bemused when I realise I think that actually, yes, these companies are that bad, profit is all they care about, and even where the wild-eyed craziness occurs it tends to be as a result of dire consequences of pollution etc. It is my firm opinion that the commercial subornment of democracy is one of their core activities.
However as a caveat, hardcore Greenie though I am - I feel that the Ecologist magazine has form on letting its biases precede the conclusions.

[bearded bloke]

As an aside,how many use products containing rape seed oil ?

[Aberdeenplotter]

It wasn't just oilseed rape, it was GM oilseed rape wasn't it? Interfere with nature and all sorts of problems arise.

[bearded bloke]

Dont know about other crops but glyphosate is deffo used to retard foliar growth at a particular stage,the plant then puts all its energy into growing the rape seeds

[donnakebab]

Roundup is used on our site to clear overgrown plots. I would never have been in favour but you have to fit in and Im coming into my 3rd year. Have never used it and took the plot on in November 2009. I have a good patch of comfrey that I can extend if I want to. One of the more experienced men have deffinate views about how to control weeds and stuff. I love him to bits. He is very helpful and always a good laf but I don't always agree with his methods. He puts up with me as long as I cultivate. Which I do.

[cptncrackoff]

As per BB above ^ many farmers locally to me are currently spraying 'growth suppression' chemicals onto oilseed rape crops, the unusually mild autumn/winter(so far!) has led to alot of early growth with some farmers fearing the rape will flower as early as feb/march (if the weather permits) when, of course there wont be the numbers of insects etc etc to pollinate. Some feel this spraying is not worth it, depending on whether the chemicals used will prevent flowering or just stunt growth.

I have mentioned before that I have used round-up, i try to use spraying as a last resort where possible.

For everyone who says 'I wont use round-up/glyphosate'. - last years damp summer gave cereal crops large amounts of late regrowth, and also lack of long hot periods towards harvest failed to fully ripen the crops, this meant that alot of farmers were using glyphosate to 'kill off' any green before harvesting.
YOU may never use it, but if you buy a loaf of bread, pint of beer.....I'm sure the grain has been washed prior to being malted/ground but is there any difference to our crops at home being washed!?

[bearded bloke]

YOU may never use it, but if you buy a loaf of bread, pint of beer.....I'm sure the grain has been washed prior to being malted/ground but is there any difference to our crops at home being washed!?

Yep,that was where I was heading bud