Sounds to me like the Glyco producers are leaning on the Govt to keep their coffers full - and the science is still being questioned ....... At least we can protect the flora and fauna in our own little valley/turnip in the country.
When the ban was proposed it was Monsanto and Roundup in their sights - a nasty American company.
Now it is owned by Bayer - a nice German company.
And as for that photo - either the farmer is an idiot or the journos are - roundup is a foliar herbicide, not a pre-emergence herbicide - so spraying bare land is just how pollution happens.
Never believe the captions of the photos. Even farmers can read the instructions how and when to spray roundup. Farmers on here will tell you what they are probably spraying in the photo.
I've never understood why individuals are banned from using certain products in the name of pollution/poisoning when farmers are allowed to continue to use far greater and often stronger quantities.
Brittany is reputed to be one of the most polluted regions in France but the lobby to support farmers is too strong and with no consideration for the methods they use. Two crops a year with chemicals pumped into poor soil to make it productive. Hedges and ditches ripped up to gain just an extra few metres leaving no habitat for wildlife that hasn't already been killed off by pesticides, exposing the land to the ravages of the winter storms and winds. Oh yes, and they fill in the drainage ditches ....
Polarengineer wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2023 11:41 am
Never believe the captions of the photos. Even farmers can read the instructions how and when to spray roundup. Farmers on here will tell you what they are probably spraying in the photo.
Yes - as I said, the journalists may be the idiots.
Why do all articles have to have a photo, however incorrect? Are the public too stupid to know what a sprayer is without a picture?
Blaze wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2023 11:44 amI've never understood why individuals are banned from using certain products in the name of pollution/poisoning when farmers are allowed to continue to use far greater and often stronger quantities.
Brittany is reputed to be one of the most polluted regions in France but the lobby to support farmers is too strong and with no consideration for the methods they use. Two crops a year with chemicals pumped into poor soil to make it productive. Hedges and ditches ripped up to gain just an extra few metres leaving no habitat for wildlife that hasn't already been killed off by pesticides, exposing the land to the ravages of the winter storms and winds. Oh yes, and they fill in the drainage ditches ....
Save money -> fire workers -> buy bigger tractors -> need more space to operate -> flatten ditches and hedges.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to chop down Canadian forests, chip them up, ship them 5000 miles to stick them into Drax Power Station - and then claim it is "green" is equally daft.
Quiksilver wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2023 2:50 pm
That may be the case in Brittany but here in the SW poplars are grown as a crop with a 15 year turnover. They most certainly are re-planted.
I'm not talking about trees planted as a crop ! Among other things, poplars are used in the building industry for things like rafters and pallets. The quick growing poplars are not so dense and are consequently much more fragile. During the tempĂŞte of 1999, many poplar plantations near Saumur were decimated - broken in half like matchsticks as the wind tore through them.
I've seen beautiful shutters made from poplar in old houses, they couldn't be made with the quick-grow poplars of today.
The trees I'm talking about are hedges and small copses with mixed deciduous trees which have been growing a great deal longer than 15 years !!
Anything to do with Wildlife in France, from insects to birds and moles.