Germany has said that it will use all legal options to end the use of glyphosate-based weed-killers.
Environment Minister, Svenja Schulze, said on Tuesday, November 6, 2018 that the federal environment agency would announce new conditions for the approval of pesticides.
“If other, perhaps even more damaging, pesticides are used instead of glyphosate, the environment won’t be any better off.
“So, we will demand new nature conservation requirements for the approval process of every pesticide that harms biodiversity,” Schulze said.
Glyphosate-based herbicides are usually made of a glyphosate salt that is combined with other ingredients that are needed to stabilise the herbicide formula and allow penetration into plants.
It is used most heavily on corn, soy, and cotton crops that have been genetically-modified to be resistant to the herbicide.
Glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides have low acute toxicity in mammals.
They also have not been shown to pose a significant risk to human health during normal use, although human deaths have been reported from deliberate ingestion of concentrated RoundUp.
