The Environment Ministry has announced a spate of new regulations on the use of herbicides and pesticides. The tougher policy aims for a staged exit from the use of weed killer glyphosate and similar products.
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Use of glyphosate and similar herbicides in Germany will face tougher restrictions going forward, the Environment Ministry announced on Tuesday.
From 2020, farmers will be required to set aside 10 percent of their farmland to protect biological diversity if they want to use glyphosate and similar herbicides, the ministry said.
Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said in Berlin that her ministry would also change the approval process for pesticides and herbicides that impact the environment.
"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.
Germany plans a staged exit from the use of glyphosate and environmentally detrimental herbicides and pesticides.
The national effort comes after the EU last year extended a license to use glyphosate for another five years despite resistance from some member states. After that, it may be phased out or banned.
Now it's in ice cream too: The controversial weed killer glyphosate has repeatedly been detected in goods we regularly consume. The doses may be small, but the fact is worrying regardless.
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Ice cream
Glyphosate has been found in Ben & Jerry's ice cream samples from Europe, according to the Health Research Institute. The attested quantities could be a health risk, says the US-based Organic Consumers Association. Ben&Jerry's insists the levels of glyphosate detected "were significantly below all allowable US and European standards."
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Grains
When glyphosate is used to kill weeds on fields of wheat, barley or rye, it can find its way into bread, buns, cakes, cookies or any other baked goods. That's how the herbicide ends up in your Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream.
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Breakfast cereals
Take cornflakes and muesli. Yes, these are made from field crops that are also sprayed with a glyphosate-based weed killer like Roundup. A 2018 Environmental Working Group report titled "Breakfast With a Dose of Roundup?" noted that all but two of 45 products tested had oats with traces of glyphosate, but that 31 of these showed alarming levels exceeding its own child safety standards.
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Water
Glyphosate is also in our water. In the water? Indeed, even there! When the weed killer is used on cultivated fields, after it rains, glyphosate seeps into the groundwater, rivers and lakes. And this way, it turns up not only in our food, but also in beverages ...
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Beer
... like the world's most popular chillaxing drink — beer. Several studies have shown small amounts of glyphosate in the beverage made from grains and water — although the more dangerous thing about beer may still be the alcohol content.
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Honey
And whoever, at the end of this list, believes it's okay to smear some honey on what is hopefully a glyphosate-free organic roll, is likely to be unhappy. Flowers that attract bees, and that grow near fields sprayed with glyphosate, are likewise affected, and could turn your sweet hopes into something fairly bitter.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kumm
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The Agriculture Ministry had already suggested a ban on using the weed killer in private gardens and parks.
The Environment Ministry plans to further limit where glyphosate can be used, including in ecologically sensitive areas and in water protection zones. In addition, there will be a general rule that the product cannot be used within 20 meters of water.
Debate on the use of glyphosate has been raging for years in Europe, where environmentalists say it damages biodiversity and ecosystems.
It has also been linked to human health problems such as cancer.
