Sod’s law waved its wand and it hit the press a couple of days after the last newsletter so, by now, it’s old news. Ninety-nine percent of farmers and foresters will tell you it’s wonderful stuff. For weed control in newly planted woodland and in low/no-till systems it’s nigh on irreplaceable but who decided it was a good idea to spray it on arable crops just before harvest?
Leaving the chemical contamination aside, it feels counterintuitive to be killing crops before harvesting them. You could argue that it’s what we do with animals but it’s not quite the same. As Mr Angry said to the Beeb, we’ve been successfully growing wheat for five thousand years without it.
After reading The Guardian’s Long Read on hydrogen sulphide poisoning on Brittany’s beaches and the farming community and local government’s somewhat lame and introspective response, the Soil Association’s current campaign is a start but it’s going to take a lot more to stop what is so obviously an egregious abuse of ‘might is right’.
I seem to remember, from my days at university, a law case (DPP v Hyam) that established the parameters of reckless intent for murder (as opposed to manslaughter) and it’s quite hard to see the difference between pouring petrol through a letter box and spraying (probably) carcinogenic chemicals on people’s food. I rest my case, Milud.