Nancy Morris introduced Laura Rance-Unger to the Rotarians and guests present tonight. Laura is the editorial Director for Glacier FarmMedia, Canada; Canada’s largest publisher of agricultural news and information, and a weekly business columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press.
Laura grew up on a southern Manitoba farm, studied journalism, and has written about agricultural and rural issues in daily and weekly newspapers for the past 38 years. She received multiple national and international awards for her work. She was recognized in 2016 by the UN-FAO and International Federation of Agricultural Journalists for excellence in global food security reporting. In 2012, she was awarded a Queen’s Diamond jubilee Medal in recognition of her contributions to agricultural journalism.
Her reporting work has taken her to many parts of the world, including a five-week-long journey through Malawi, Zambia and Ethiopia in 2015 on a special assignment with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. She was studying and writing about how conservation agriculture supports food security and development in Africa.
Laura advised that she is not here to defend or condemn glyphosate (Round Up). The chemical was developed by Monsanto, has some questioning environment issues as well as does it cause cancer. Monsanto developed it in 1950 and wanted to market it in the 1970’s as a water softener! In 1974 it entered the market as a non-selective herbicide. It was very expensive in the 1970’s – 1980’s when patented ($20/litre). It did have a short half-life and was said to be benign, in relative terms. In the late 1980’s and 1990’s the price dropped to the order of ~$5/litre. This led to no-till agriculture becoming very popular. The crop seeds selected to be used with glyphosate treatments included canola, corn and soybean because they were resistant to the herbicide. The use of glyphosate increased 100 fold from 1970 until today. Farming became very simple with this product, ‘seed – spray – harvest’. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in Canada and internationally.
When you search this chemical now online you will find the following words associated with glyphosate – cancer, GMO’s, Monsanto Papers. Statements like “OMG it’s in baby food”, autism, it’s in our urine.
My Experience,
Laura grew up on a farm in the Red River valley in the 60’s and 70’s. Soil erosion was and still is a major issue. Her parents were pioneers in the area of decreasing tilling in order to increase the health of the soil. Glyphosate allowed for soil conservation and was an economical way to control weeds. Undisturbed soil is healthy soil. This differs greatly from the past thought that ‘black soil was good soil’, tilling over and over. The way to go now is ‘conservation tillage’ and the knowledge that nature loves diversity, meaning that you should rotate crops.
Never Say Never,
Glyphosate was hailed as a once in a century herbicide. The belief was that weeds would never overcome this herbicide. The reality is that there are now 40+ plants that are resistant to it. Five of those plants are already in Canada. The farming pattern suggested for use of glyphosate was to spray the field pre-seeding to clean the field of weeds. Then spray again 2 to 3 times during the growing season, finally spray again just before harvesting to kill all weeds to allow for a uniform harvest that is clean reducing quality problems.
The problem is that nature comes back to bite us. A notable quote heard from a farmer is “nature bats last”. Palmer amaranth is an example of a resistant weed, pigweed is a close relative. Farmers are falling back on manual labour to use hoes to pull out the palmer amaranth weeds. The solution offered by industry was a chemical cocktail. It took 3 to 4 years for the weed to become resistant to the cocktail of herbicides. One pigweed plant can produce 100,000 seeds. Farmers must increase diversity in crops and alter management practices. The failure of the herbicide was stated by the manufacturer to be the farmers fault in that they used it improperly. Farmers need to get over the chemical addiction for weed control in crops. This means a return to tillage.
The Other Issue,
What is glyphosate doing to humans, animals, bees? The chemical is now applied directly to our food, not just weeds in the field. The I.A.R.C. [International Agency for Research on Cancer], part of the W.H.O., stated that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen in 2015. This puts it in the same category as wood smoke, processed meats and very hot beverages. Researchers can not do long term testing on humans, but they can look for correlations. Most health agencies, including Health Canada, consider glyphosate as low risk.
Regulation by Jury,
There are currently over 9,000 court cases filed against glyphosate in the U.S.A. In 2018 a California jury awarded $285 million in damages to a lone plaintiff. This was reduced to $79 million on appeal. A second court case has also had the jury find for the plaintiff.
Bayer Crop Science bought Monsanto and now holds the liability for these court cases. Each time a jury finds for a plaintiff, the stock value drops double digits for Bayer Crop Science. Of the 750 products marketed that contain glyphosate, Bayer Crop Science manufactures only a few of them. These stock losses can not be allowed to continue for the future of the company.
Tillage of the soil is a very destructive practice. When soil is healthy it consumes carbon. When the soil is unhealthy it will release carbon.
Next,
Look for a future without glyphosate. Its effectiveness is decreasing over time. Public pressure will be a major component in the reduction of use of glyphosate.
Glyphosate causing cancer does not keep Laura up at night. She does worry about climate change and what it will do to the crop fields of the world. Soil health is a major factor in the carbon equation. Glyphosate isn’t the solution; it is a useful tool. The big picture for soil health and retention includes major flooding and soil erosion through wind.
Regenerative Agriculture,
When two crops are seeded together there can be an increase in yield by up to 30%. Soil biology is a big topic now. Farmers are using cattle on their land to help rebuild the soil between crops. When this is done properly, living roots can be seen in the soil for up to 11 months of the year here in Manitoba.
Q/A
1.-Lloyd Talbot wanted Laura’s opinion if the canola seed issue with China is due to our use of an herbicide such as glyphosate?
A.- Anything is possible. Years ago blackleg could be found in canola. China does not want that brought in. Politics is definitely involved. China actually uses glyphosate.
2.-Paul Brault stated that he used to work for a major beverage company. Glyphosate is not listed as dangerous goods for transportation. It is non-regulated.
3.- Chuck Crocker asked if farmers are able to change their crop planting plans at this point in time.
A.- No, the seeds will be booked as well as the required herbicide. Canola should only be planted on a 1 in 4-year rotation. When clubroot is an issue that rotation for canola becomes 1 in 10-year rotation. Clubroot is tied to tight rotations.
Glenn Campbell thanked Laura for her presentation on such a controversial topic. She was advised that a donation in her name would be made to ShelterBox.
President Mandy stated that Laura’s presentation will allow her to relax a little when the aerial sprayers come near her home. She is surrounded by agricultural fields.
