Round-up on herbicide

A proposed 100-fold rise in permitted glyphosate residue in food hits fierce opposition.

- BY ANDREA GRAVES

My mother used to spray lawn edges with glyphosate, the key ingredient of Roundup. "It's only Roundup," she'd say, wearing her painting shirt for protection. Her relaxed attitude is common despite the label's warnings. After all, we've all heard it breaks down to nothing. And it's so darn useful, especially for farmers and growers.

There's change afoot. New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) has proposed raising the maximum residue level for glyphosate in food by up to 100 times in wheat, oats and barley.

And last month, the NGO, Environmental Law Initiative, took the Environmental Protection Authority to the High Court after it refused the group's 2023 request to reassess glyphosate. The EPA ruled last July that the past decade's barrage of published studies did not meet its test of “significant new information", relying in part on the findings of reviews by the European Union, Australia and the US.