Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Resistance to Glyphosate Popping Up in Europe: Countries Oppose Renewing Glyphosate's License to Kill Weeds



In Europe, glyphosate is under national attack from several EU countries, and activists there are taking their message to the streets in the hopes of gaining more support.

Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands are all opposing relicensing glyphosate for another 15 year term, according to coverage in today's Guardian. Germany has taken a vote of no position due to internal disagreements among its government ministers.

A vote that was to have taken place on Tuesday, which glyphosate supporters thought of as a slam dunk, has been postponed for 30 days or more.

The group WeMove.eu posted these photos from its protest on Tuesday outside the officials'  voting site. More than 1.4 million people in Europe signed a petition urging a ban of glyphosate, after it was labeled a likely carcinogen in 2015 by a UN health group.

In additional news, food activists at the Munich Environmental Institute tested German beers and found that 14 leading brands of beer contained glyphosate. Read more here.









Wine grape growers in California typically use more than 1.5 lbs. of glyphosate per acre each year.

For example, in Sonoma in 2013, wine grape growers alone used more than 83,000 lbs. of glyphosate on 51,000 acres.

The chart below shows the 2012 use of just one of the two main types of glyphosate on wine grapes statewide. To map individual regions, visit the California Dept. of Public Health's newly improved pesticide use mapping tool here.


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