Another attempt to get glyphosate use back on the table (petition against)

[Mr Gus]

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/na ... c/?cDPgurb

Sign if you feel able...

The blurb..
"Millions of bees are dying, and their homes are being devastated. But in weeks, the EU could vote for a bill that would protect their habitat and give bees and the nature they need a fighting chance to recover – creating a blueprint for other parts of the world.

Conservative politicians are siding with the pesticide industry and other powerful interests against a strong law. In conversations with parliamentarians, we’re hearing that we might lose this fight – as politicians seem to think that people don’t care about this issue.

What happens in Europe matters beyond the EU's borders. With bees under pressure across the globe, let's show our leaders how much we care"

[renewablejohn]

I would much rather have a world with glyphosate than one without it. If you understand nature you can quite easily use glyphosate and not destroy the bee population. Speaking as a bee keeper now with 7 hives.

[ClockmanFRA]

Watch out, Controversial bit from me.

Here in France the general population want their good weedkillers back in use.

Why, because I believe that the general Human Being is a lazy bustard, and would rather just sprinkle stuff on the ground and not think about the consequences, than use their Brains to think!.

Us, we have about 300 meters of gravel drives and always been an issue keeping grass etc from growing in the drives.

So using what’s left of my brain thoughts, this year we came up with this.

In the USA these graders are used a lot on gravel roads/drives. They are just dragged behind a vehicle and don’t go to deep, ours is set to only disturb about 25mm depth of the gravel surface.

So weeds soon get the hint.

The 45 degree angles of steel are important as you can also level the drive, the depth of gravel disturbed is set by the steel bars to the flat sheet on the surface.

Yes, its an old steel heavy door we had from an old building.

The tractor, it’s a air cooled twin cylinder diesel, 61 years old, Deutz, and uses hardly any fuel and does not smoke, it also cuts our 8.5 acres of hay fields.

[Paul_F]

Uh... you sure you don't mean neoniconotoids? They're most likely the ones killing bees, and are a pesticide rather than a herbicide which is what the petition is talking about.

[Bugtownboy]

Don’t forget, Glyphosate is not only used to kill weeds, it’s also used on some crops almost as a desiccant prior to harvest.

Obviously any residual amounts in the resulting foodstuffs are not harmful

[AE-NMidlands]

My take on it is that I'm not just worried about honeybees. Glyphosate may be "safe" for them as it may not be toxic and may not appear in the nectar, both of which are certainly a big problem with neonics.
I want to see around us all the other "bugs" which make up the food web, as without them there's no food for bats etc (to give just 1 very narrow example.)
Glyphosate is designed to eliminate everything it is sprayed on other than the actual crop, so there are no other "weeds" in the fields to provide nectar, leaves for caterpillars to eat or seed to feed up mice etc for overwintering - which provide a food supply for owls etc. It grieves me that there aren't any plants, especially brambles, in the bottom of our hedges any more, as they are sprayed ourt and the hawthorn etc is trimmed brutally along the top.
By coincidence, https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... land-chair says today

Natural England chair Tony Juniper says government must work quickly to reconcile farming and nature
He said ministers needed to work quickly to be able to fix the conflicts between farming and nature. “This is about reconciling, again, some really quite complicated conundrums, including how, for example, we can maintain a high level of domestic food production at the same time as bringing wildlife back into the landscape,” he said. “And some of this is about policy. Some of it is about knowledge. Some of it is about culture.

(The whole article is worth reading) I think we are seeing that here!
A
p.s. I spent my childhood holidays on a family farm, nearly bought a smallholding, have grown fruit and veg for 45 years, had chickens for a few decades and had bees for over 40 years.

Does anyone else here listen to the 0545 R4 farming programme? If you did and if you feel as I do for both wildlife and the plight of our farmers your blood would be boiling like mine is! The only conclusion you can draw is that the Govt. just doesn't care, and when they get pushed into saying they are going to do something the civil servants do their utmost to make any useful help impossible to access.

[Mr Gus]

I used to listen to it daily (part of my wake up routine) I need to do it again, my favourite DAB radio died & I have not sussed the problem as to bin or fix, ..it is a design monster (the pure BUG TOO) in white which I love.

My alarm was typically for 5.45am I do miss that element of night time world service & then early morn R4.

It's the crop drying dessicant that doubles down my dislike of neo's which you have a damn hard time avoiding.

The petition group are targetting on the "ah bee's" (admittedly i.m smitten with, but you only need to read their copy to get an idea of how they solicit an element of votes.

[renewablejohn]

The sooner Natural England and Tony Juniper are abolished the better the country will be. Just another quango totally out of control.