I am interested in reading Kevin Prince's articles on farming, and also, as an inveterate Radio 4 listener I daily listen to Farming Today. 

I was disconcerted to read and hear about the regenerative farming proposals. These involve a minimum tillage of the land and direct drilling into the previously cropped land, which is a good thing as it retains the structure of the soil and does not compress the land to such a degree. 

However, in parallel with this, the land is treated with glyphosate. Kevin Prince in his article says that glyphosate is stated by its manufacturers not to be a persistent chemical as it "breaks down" after killing any remaining cover crop. Glyphosate had been sold to domestic gardeners as Roundup manufactured by Monsanto which is now owned by Bayer. However, Roundup has now been banned for sale to domestic gardeners, and on the label is states "not to be used near water or food". 

Roundup is an organophosphate, the World Health Organisation has upgraded glyphosate as carcinogenic, really(?), and we allow food providers to put this on their land. 

So how happy should we be to buy food produced by these farmers? As an addendum, Monsanto's history does not make happy reading. They were responsible for manufacturing in the past DDT, PCBs Agent Orange and genetically modified seed for crops.

Shall we now all demand to buy organic food only?

Sue Halloway,
Lower Chase Road,
Swanmore

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