THE long-running campaign to secure the re-authorisation of what the National Farmers’ Union Scotland called ‘the essential’ herbicide, glyphosate, has seen the appeals committee in Brussels approve the product for a further five years.
It has been a hugely frustrating process, which saw politics rather than scientific evidence delay decisions on a product that had been deemed safe by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) amongst others. NFUS believes re-authorisation for a full 15 years was justifiable.
NFU Scotland has been running its #Glyphosateisvital social media campaign since the summer and recently president Andrew McCornick wrote to the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and commissioners Vytenis Andriukaitis and Phil Hogan on the need for reauthorisation.