Electric fencing on hill country allowing greater subdivision and much improved grazing management and feed allocation is right up there.
Sheep breeding tools like SIL, DNA analysis, SNP chips, CT and ultrasound scanning and finally the realisation feedubg high-performance sheep properly gives productivity unimaginable three or four decades ago.
And the use of glyphosate has vastly improved our ability to efficiently get crops and pastures sown without the use of the plough and create clean seed beds.
It has been a terrific chemical. It is absorbed through foliage and transported to the growing points in the roots and leaves and growth stops within hours. Cultivation can begin within a few days.
It is effective on actively growing plants and cannot prevent seeds from germinating.
It adheres strongly to soil particles, limiting surface and ground water pollution. It is readily degraded by soil microbes.
When used approprioately and according to the label it is safe for humans and other lifeforms.
And it’s relatively cheap.
It’s the perfect chemical, which why it is used so widely.
But in recent years, given how much is used around the world, it’s in the sights of the greenies, activists, idealists and the uninformed.
There have been many studies into its safety with very little evidence it is dangerous when used appropriately. The benefits far outweigh the risks.
However, the World Health Organisation in 2015 classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic in humans.
That added it to a category of things such as sunlight, household bleach, hairspray, alcohol, toast and a myriad of others used in daily life.
You are likely aware of the United States case of Dewayne Johnson who is dying of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He took Monsanto to court claiming Roundup caused it. The jury has just found in his favour and awarded him US$289 million damages but Monsanto is appealing and Johnson will be dead before that case is heard.
I would have thought a strong defence would have been that if he had done as the label recommended and taken precautions he wouldn’t have got crook and it might just as easily have been the fumes from his car or the stuff he cleaned the shower with that got him.
This verdict will open the floodgates for thousands of other cases, I imagine.
Closer to home we have just heard from Massey University’s Professor John Potter recommend restricting the use of the product and even banning it for many uses.
He suggests pulling the weeds or using flame throwers and is welcome to come to my farm for a spot of rouging.
One might be wondering just what is going down there at Massey, once proud to be supportive of agriculture. So before putting the boot in again, one should point out that Potter’s colleague Kerry Harrington, a lecturer on weeds is on record as saying it is no more hazardous than being a hairdresser, a shift worker mucking up your circadian rhythms or burning wood in the fireplace.
We will see a lot more alarmist and knee jerk reactions to this foolish jury’s verdict.
If glyphosate is removed from use, the alternatives are more dangerous to lifeforms and much tougher on the environment.
I wonder if those protestors about to gird their loins to fight the good fight would be so fervent if they realised that removing tools like glyphosate will see their grocery bill skyrocket.
