The European Food Safety Authority will decide whether to ban glyphosate in July. See what that will mean for Australian growers. As the European Union prepares to vote on whether to ban the world’s most popular herbicide, experts say the outcome could bring both costs and opportunities for Australian farmers.
Glyphosate, commonly known as roundup, has faced controversy since 2015, when the International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded it was “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
The European Food Safety Authority will decide whether to continue with the registration of glyphosate in July.
Agronomy consultant and CropFacts director Harm Van Rees said the EU’s decision could have big knock on effects for Australian farmers.
Mr Van Rees visited the EU, the United Kingdom, Canada and Argentina last year as part of a study tour funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation to meet with farmers, researchers and agronomists and try to understand what farming would look like without glyphosate, and how the decision would affect Australia.
Europe will decide whether to ban the use of glyphosate in July. Picture: Jean-Francois Monier/AFP
If the use of the chemical was banned in EU member nations, he said it was possible a ban on grain imports grown using glyphosate could follow. “The French farmers said that … if they can’t match production levels … they want to guarantee that any food imported into the EU is going to be glyphosate free,” he said.
Farmers in France and Germany were anticipating significant yield losses — the additional time required to cultivate soil to destroy weeds meant they would be able to harvest only two crops in two years, instead of three — and argued they would not be able to compete with imports that used glyphosate, he said.
If a domestic ban did result in changes to import criteria, Australian canola growers may find their cropping practices affected. Europe is Australia’s main export market for oilseeds, though the commodity is mainly used for biofuel, rather than food, production.
Australian wheat and barley producers, whose main export markets were in Asia, could see significant change in global demand if forecast productivity declines in Europe proved to be accurate.
A study published last year in Environmental Sciences Europe found without glyphosate, EU farmers could experience losses in wheat production of up to 24Mt, worth an estimated $16.2 billion.
Mr Van Rees said there was also the possibility that legislation change in Europe could flow through to change in Australia. “Public awareness and concerns relating to farm pesticide use is increasing … and we can’t ignore the possibility of it happening here,” he said.
If that did happen, there was a lot Australian farmers could learn from the European experience. Research has found an increase in soil tillage to deal with weeds without glyphosate could degrade soil structure, increase erosion, and increase greenhouse gas emissions through the oxidation of organic matter.
But rapid advances in automated weed control technologies like electric laser weeding, robot weeding and spot spraying would make a big difference, Mr Van Rees said. “With new technology, we will be able to control weeds without having to use glyphosate. That technology doesn’t exist yet, but it is developing fast,” he said.