Glyphosate is the most widely sold weedkiller in the world, you might know it as the active ingredient in Roundup. The big chemical companies advise farmers to spray their wheat crops with glyphosate a few weeks before harvest – to kill the crop and remove weeds to make it easier for them to harvest. Government figures show its use in UK farming has increased by a shocking 400% in the last 20 years. Nearly a third of UK cereal crops (over 1 million hectares) were sprayed with glyphosate in 2013.
But, this chemical doesn’t break down immediately, and can follow the grain into food manufacturing processes. Tests by the Defra committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF) have found that as much as 30% of UK bread contained this weedkiller. UK wheat will also be used for lots of other foods including biscuits.
We don’t think this is right. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organisation), have identified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen to humans – do we really want this weedkiller in our food?
Outside the UK, there are moves to ban the sale and use of Roundup – which Dr Robin Mesnage of the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Kings College in London revealed tests showed as being 1,000 times more toxic than glyphosate alone. Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and France have all imposed restrictions.
The Soil Association has called for an immediate ban on pre-harvest use of glyphosate on crops, but we must do more to get this chemical out of our food.
Sign our petition to UK bread manufacturers and retailers including Hovis, Warburtons, Allied Bakery and Brace’s and all major supermarkets.
“We don’t want weedkiller in the millions of loaves, toast, bread rolls and sandwiches consumed in UK homes every day. Please stop using wheat sprayed with glyphosate in your products”
Add your name to the petition here.
