The NFU is urging farmers to contact their local MEP to tell them the importance of glyphosate on their farm and the potential consequences if it becomes unavailable.
The NFU and other unions will be writing a letter to the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety as well as all UK Members of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Environment Committees in the next few days outlining the importance of the world’s most widely used herbicide glyphosate and to grant its "urgent" re-authorisation.
The European Parliament will vote later this month on whether the European Commission’s proposed re-authorisation of glyphosate should be removed pending further analysis of the environmental and human health impacts of the herbicide.
The NFU is urging MEPs to oppose the resolution citing the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA1 ) conclusion that ‘glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans'.
NFU Vice President Guy Smith said: "Glyphosate has long been used on farm as a broad-spectrum herbicide to control pernicious weeds before planting.
"This practice allows the farmer to avoid more expensive cultivation techniques such as ploughing.
"This is proven to be good for climate change mitigation by reducing fossil fuel usage in tractors and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions.
"Furthermore, these minimum tillage establishment practices have additional environmental benefits and have been shown to have positive effects on biodiversity and decrease soil erosion.
"ADAS put the estimated value of the use of glyphosate in the UK arable sector at an estimated €633million a year.
"It said the loss of glyphosate would likely see a decline of production of winter wheat and winter barley by 12 per cent and oilseed rape by 10 per cent.
"Loss of availability in the livestock and dairy sectors would result in an inability to tackle invasive and poisonous species such as ragwort in grassland.
"The NFU has grasped the opportunity to discuss the impact on agriculture with MEPs and Member States’ national governments through the NFU’s established Brussels office.
"We look forward to making the case for glyphosate directly to Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis from DG Sante in a letter to him and several MEPs in the next few days."
Opposition to glyphosate renewal
On the other side of the debate, the Soil Association called for a UK ban on the use of glyphosate sprayed on wheat as a pre-harvest weedkiller.
Government data revealed glyphosate use in UK farming has increased by 400% in the last 20 years and it’s one of the three pesticides regularly found in routine testing of British bread - appearing in up to 30% of samples tested by the Defra committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF).
Dr Robin Mesnage of the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Kings College in London, revealed new data analysis showing RoundUp is 1,000 times more toxic than Glyphosate alone.
"Glyphosate is everywhere throughout our food chain - in our food and water.
"The lack of data on toxicity of glyphosate is not proof of safety and these herbicides cannot be considered safe without proper testing.
"We know Round Up, the commercial name of glyphosate based herbicides, contains many other chemicals which, when mixed together are 1,000 times more toxic than glyphosate on its own."
Late last month, a group of Environment Committee MEPs objected to the renewal of glyphosate.
"So long as serious concerns remain about the carcinogenicity and endocrine disruptive properties of the herbicide glyphosate, which is used in hundreds of farm, forestry, urban and garden applications, the EU Commission 'should not' renew its authorisation."
"The European Commission should not renew the approval of the herbicide substance glyphosate on the EU market for another 15 years, until 2031, without any restrictions as proposed."
In a new French-Hungarian study, the co-formulants of glyphosate herbicides are shown to be endocrine disruptors, i.e. to interfere with the human hormone system.
Two ENSSER board members, Nicolas Defarge and András Székács, were involved in the study.
