France bans Roundup Pro 360

Hello, its been awhile... I hope you have all been well. I've been away a bit..

So, this is what made me stick my nose in again. Some news out of France other than yellow vests.

Weedkiller Roundup banned in France after court ruling

Roundup, owned by Germany’s Bayer after its purchase of US agro-giant Monsanto last year, contains glyphosate which environmentalists and other critics have long believed causes cancer.

The French food and environmental safety agency ANSES said in a statement that sales of Roundup Pro 360 were banned as of Tuesday following a court ruling earlier in the day.
“As the ruling took effect immediately, market approval for Roundup Pro 360 has been cancelled,” ANSES said in a statement to AFP. “The sale, distribution and use of Roundup Pro 360 are forbidden as of today.”

“It’s a major ruling because it should eventually cover all versions of Roundup, as the court determined that all products with glyphosate are probably carcinogens,” said Corinne Lepage, a lawyer for the CRIIGEN genetics research institute.

So, why is this important? What's so important about France banning one type of Roundup and possibly all types of weedkiller with glyphosate?"

France is the 6th largest food producer in the world and the largest in the EU.

www.mediamaxnetwork.co.ke...

Others, likely never will ban it. I honestly can't see China, the US or Russia, etc ever banning it. There simply too much money to be made.

But, I will say, good for France. The stuff is poison.

a reply to: Frogs

I spent many of my younger years in Europe. When I came back to the United States, I was shocked at the poor quality of food. It honestly didn't even taste like food. People don't realize how long kept and preserved our food is. (some orange juice can be a year old) Food in France is both delicious and healthy. There is little refrigeration and care is taken to buy quality over quantity. There's a lot that I don't agree with the French, but they got the food thing down.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Frogs

I spent many of my younger years in Europe. When I came back to the United States, I was shocked at the poor quality of food. It honestly didn't even taste like food. People don't realize how long kept and preserved our food is. (some orange juice can be a year old) Food in France is both delicious and healthy. There is little refrigeration and care is taken to buy quality over quantity. There's a lot that I don't agree with the French, but they got the food thing down.

Yes, I agree whole heartily. I have spent a little time in France myself over the years and their love for the quality of their food does have a special place in my heart. Many people think of French food as being fancy, but much of it is really simple and rustic. But with ingredients of quality. After our last visit Mrs. Frogs and I went to the produce section section of our local supermarket and said, "Wow, this is bad.."

But the last time I was there I noticed large supermarkets have sprung up and many of the little farming villages are just hanging on. In one sense this may make it harder for them to compete, but on the other their food will likely be better and healthier for it.

a reply to: Frogs

Interesting development, maybe Monsanto saw this coming and that's why they sold out to Bayer knowing law suits would be on the way.

We surely have better techniques for farmers to successfully grow crops without the need for toxins like glyphosate.

I completely agree with the action taken by France and that doesn’t happen often. The United States needs to protect the citizens from this poison.

Good for France. I don't have anything good to say about glyphosate, especially when tied to a strong adjuvant. I think that they use way too much of this and way too much of some pesticides on our food. I can smell it or pesticides on veggies sometimes, growing up on a farm I recognize these smells to this day. I just brought the last of my pesticides and herbicides I got over the years to the hazardous waste disposal site. You can't put these chemicals into the dump but you can put them on your food. Doesn't that sound crazy?

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Frogs

Interesting development, maybe Monsanto saw this coming and that's why they sold out to Bayer knowing law suits would be on the way.

We surely have better techniques for farmers to successfully grow crops without the need for toxins like glyphosate.

See this..

agriculture Farming without glyphosate — how would that work?


TDLTR version - not using glyphosate is still more work / more expensive than using it. That Does Not mean I'm saying glyphosate is good by any stretch. Not using it can be done, and has been done for 1000's of years. But, will you see tings grown without it and your local Mega-lo-Mart? Probably not unless they are under the "organic" label..

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Frogs

Interesting development, maybe Monsanto saw this coming and that's why they sold out to Bayer knowing law suits would be on the way.

We surely have better techniques for farmers to successfully grow crops without the need for toxins like glyphosate.

Another interesting thing, Bayer is German owned. So, I somewhat doubt Germany will be following suite soon. However, this perhaps sets the stage for a France vs Germany food war of sorts within the EU.

originally posted by: Frogs

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Frogs

Interesting development, maybe Monsanto saw this coming and that's why they sold out to Bayer knowing law suits would be on the way.

We surely have better techniques for farmers to successfully grow crops without the need for toxins like glyphosate.

Another interesting thing, Bayer is German owned. So, I somewhat doubt Germany will be following suite soon. However, this perhaps sets the stage for a France vs Germany food war of sorts within the EU.

German owned yes but generally Europeans as a whole are quite progressive, I would Hazard a guess if this ban is successful it will spread throughout Europe and catch on elsewhere too.

The issue with herbicides as I see it is they are used to maximize profits, the food industry needs to be removed from this profit driven perspective and farmers need to be subsidized otherwise frankenfoods will be the norm, food should be a medicine not a poison.

I rarely agree with French politics...

but I agree with them on this one!

There is a label rate to mix the chemical with water, ie Ratio. A lot of Farmers break the law and mix in a conglomerate of a chemical “soup” and exceeding the mix ratios thinking that “more is better” for killing weeds and bugs. If you’ve been around a cropduster mixing area or load pad, it’s an eye opener on the amount of toxic material that is sprayed all over. It’s like taking a machine gun to a tennis match.

My dad thought roundup was the neatest thing invented since sliced bread.
We watched a program and saw how farmers were spraying and killing entire fields after harvest and letting them sit until planting season. The benefit was that without plowing there was less soil erosion. Cool! Right?

He always had to plow the fields with mules after harvest and let it sit until planting season so one can see how he might like this idea.

Fence row's could be sprayed and turned to dead ugly dry color almost over night. No more bush whacking and weed eating! Just drive by and spray it and boom done.

I told my dad there's NO way that you can spray something on those plants that we eat and kill them and it not do harm somewhere but he didn't agree with me.

I'll be darned, turns out I was right after all! Chalk one up for the son.
I'm gonna call and tell him today that they are banning Round Up and see what he says.

I am sure there be coming-up more “riots” and “yellow jackets” hit the France soon again. Very sad to say.

FYI.

I live in Michigan, we have a family farm, and large commercial farmers are running, as fast as they can, here from "Round-up Ready" crops, because of the latest Monsanto lawsuit regarding glyphosate.

Once more lawsuits are filed and farmers, and producers of crops related to this product might be implicated it will be a no brainier. No one wants possible liability now that a landmark case has been won.

a reply to: Realtruth

Well, that's a different issue, isn't it?

"Roundup Ready" is a genetically modified organism seed engineered to resist injury from the application of roundup, and not actually roundup itself. Just because it's 'roundup ready' doesn't mean you have to apply roundup to it. I thought the issue here was the GMO part, not the roundup part.

Either way, it's probably a good thing.

Roundup seems to be the cause for the massive bee die offs, and that is a very bad thing indeed. (for farmers, and everyone else).

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Don't know about you...but I love using it to kill weeds in my gravel driveway as well as any blackberries that try to grow through my fence. It is a great general spray to avoid weeding, but I wouldn't say it should be used around crops IMO

Well - back with an update and I'm afraid its not a good one..

Macron backs down on pledge to ban glyphosate in France

French president Emmanuel Macron says that the phasing out of glyphosate-based weed killers in France by 2021, as previously announced, will be impossible, as it would hurt the agricultural industry. Glyphosate is a weed killer which the World Health Organisation has classified as “probably” carcinogenic in humans. But farmers say there is no good alternative.

This comes as part of his response and concessions to the Yellow Vest protests..

Speaking yesterday during a public debate in south-eastern France, Macron said that if he went ahead with that promise he “would be completely killing some sectors”. Farmers have been pushing back, saying that three years is not enough time to find an alternative that is both economically viable and environmentally friendly

How this will impact the court ruling is yet to be told. Perhaps they will stop at the one type they banned and leave it at that? Perhaps everything will just be pushed off a few years? I do not know French politics and courts well enough to know what steps would need to be taken to overturn it.

As a Texan, many of my family still farms...

Weeds don’t die unless they are poisoned....this is not rocket science

Have fun farming on an industrial scale France....

Looks like China just got a new, very big market for its grain...

-Chris