Farmers say there is ‘no other alternative’ to glyphosate as Roundup class action continues

West Australian farmers say there is “no other alternative” to glyphosate when it comes to modern day cropping, amid fears restrictions on the chemical would severely harm farming productivity. It comes after the Australian Federal Court heard the closing submissions in a landmark lawsuit involving more than 800 people who claim the herbicide Roundup, and its main ingredient glyphosate, causes Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The trial will conclude whether or not the weed killer is a carcinogenic for humans and, if claimants are successful, it could lead to an introduction of regulatory restrictions on glyphosate, a move farmers say would completely “set back” farming. York farmer and Grain Growers Limited chair Rhys Turton said there had been more than enough tests and peer reviews to prove glyphosate was safe for use. He said the current debate was more politically driven than scientific. “Time and time again, glyphosate’s been proven by independent regulators to be a safe product when used correctly,” Mr Turton said. “Everyone has to follow the rules. Personal protection equipment, paddock spraying at a suitable time — all of this has to be taken into consideration when using glyphosate.” Mr Turton said glyphosate had been a “game changer” for farming and he could not see any other way to crop. “Glyphosate is a brilliant broad spectrum herbicide,” he said. “And what’s becoming more apparent now is the environmental benefits of it.” Before glyphosate, farmers would need to plow their paddocks and disturb the soil to eradicate weeds, resulting in soil and wind erosion. However with glyphosate, farmers can plant new crops and pastures over previous crops without disturbing the soil. “We’re not working the soil anywhere near as much as we used to,” Mr Turton said. Grain Producers Australia’s southern director Andrew Weidemann agreed glyphosate “revolutionised” no-till farming since the chemical’s introduction to Australia in 1974. “Glyphosate stops the advent of soil degradation and it saves us so much fuel costs for diesel as well,” Mr Weidemann said. He said without glyphosate, farmers would be set back to producing a third of what is being produced today. “We would lose productivity. It would be a massive hit,” he said. “With the world’s population growing as quickly as it is, we don’t have any alternatives to the chemical.” Despite glyphosate’s major role in modern day cropping, there are those in the farming community who have opted for chemical-free ways of farming. Newdegate farmer Nick Kelly uses perennial pasture cropping, a method that involves growing perennial summer pastures in paddocks to crowd out weeds. Not only is it a chemical-free way of eradicating weeds, it does not disturb the soil or involve any tilling. Mr Kelly, who is the chairman of the Wheatbelt Integrity Group, said the cropping method had involved a lot of work over the years. “It’s quite an involved process, and it’s been quite a journey with the exploration of perennial pasture cropping system in WA,” he said. Mr Kelly said the system still had some limitations and from a cash crop perspective, it was not productive enough in holding back weeds, especially when compared to perennial pasture cropping ventures in the east. He said this could be because of WA’s hot and dry summers, which did not allow subtropical and perennial grasses to prosper in the same way they would do in the Eastern States, where there is more summer rainfall. Mr Kelly said regardless of the effectiveness of perennial pasture cropping, he would never return to chemical use, yet he understood the major role glyphosate played in modern day farming. “You can’t cut something off and tell people to start doing something else,” he said. Mr Kelly said a ban on the chemical would lead to a food production issue. “Without an alternative to glyphosate, we would face starvation.”