Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Wednesday November 29 2017, @10:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-they-said-it-was-safe dept.

Science Mag reports that the active ingredient in Monsanto's Round-Up weed killer and similar products is perfectly, er, probably, um, maybe safe enough for another 5 years.

The commission's Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF), made up of representatives from the commission's 28 member nations, couldn't agree on the length of a renewed license. PAFF initially proposed a 15-year renewal, then a 9-year renewal, and eventually settled on an 18-month extension.

Over the past 2 months, the committee again debated an extension, but no proposal secured the necessary "qualified majority" of PAFF members. But today [Nov 27] 18 countries voted in favor of a 5-year renewal, including Germany and three others that had abstained in the previous vote.

The case against glyphosate wasn't helped by the International Agency for Research on Cancer including it on its dubiously regarded Group 2A (probable carcinogens) along with Red Meat and Shift Work.

Stéphane Travert, agriculture minister of France (France voted for NO extension), sounded heroically determined on public radio when he proclaimed:

"These are 5 years during which we will work to search for alternatives, 5 years during which we will mobilize research and innovation so that tomorrow we can modify agricultural practices for our farmers and for the environment."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Thursday November 30 2017, @03:06AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 30 2017, @03:06AM (#603261) Journal

    The applied glyphosate has itself an energy cost to produce.
    Google helped: this cost boils down to 195,000BTU/acre/application [extension.org] (scroll down to 'Table 1. Estimated manufacturing energy inputs for various pesticides (BTUs/lb), typical application rates (lbs/A), and energy per unit area of use (BTUs/A) on an active ingredient basis.').

    Perspective: [eia.gov] 1 gallon of diesel fuel = 137,452 Btu (distillate fuel with less than 15 parts per million sulfur content).
    I have a hunch running the seed destructor while harvesting will add less than 1 gallon of diesel per acre; I might be wrong though.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4