A debate over whether a controversial weedkiller should be used to speed up the harvest prompted a senior farmer to claim glyphosate is 'safer than sausages'.
The widely-used herbicide is under scrutiny as the EU prepares to decide whether to renew its licensing approval later this year, after a series of conflicting scientific reports over whether it should be classed as a carcinogen.
And the specific question of whether it should be banned as a pre-harvest desiccant to ripen crops faster was discussed by East Anglian farmers at this week's Cereals show in Lincolnshire.
Nick Mole, of the Pesticide Action Network, questioned whether the practice improved the harvested grain, and suggested farmers could actually benefit from it being phased out.
'Over the last 20 years the overall use of glyphosate on cereals has increased, and the pre-harvest use is a contributing factor to that increase,' he said.
'There is an issue about residues found in wheat, flour and bread products and all the things that consumers use.
'The reality of it is the public are concerned about it and retailers are concerned about it, so regardless of where you stand on the issue, the public does not want glyphosate in their food.
'Most of our cereals go to the EU, where legislation around glyphosate is likely to have restrictions placed on it if you listen to the tone of the debate at the moment. One of them will be a ban on glyphosate as a pre-harvest desiccant. We need to start looking at alternatives now because that will be the reality in a few years, whether you like it or not.
'The last point I would make is about resistance. If we reduce the amount of glyphosate we are using now it will reduce the risk of resistance in future.'
Guy Smith, an Essex farmer who is vice president of the National Farmers' Union, responded: 'The main toxicity argument against glyphosate has been made by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), but they have found so many things to be more carcinogenic, including processed meat – so even the IARC admits that glyphosate is safer than sausages.
'So let's look at some other reports. EFSA (European Food Safety Authority ) and ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) all gave glyphosate a clean bill of health for pre-harvest use. It is only through the court of public opinion that the idea there is a health issue has been whipped up. There is no appetite anywhere else in the world to ban glyphosate.
'Our Healthy Harvest report says farmers must be judicious and responsible in their use of pesticides – anything else would be irresponsible and risk an increase in resistance.
'There are clear environmental gains from using glyphosate pre-harvest. We wall know it will ease the harvest, making combining quicker and bringing crops back drier so we need to use less fuel harvesting and drying it. Do you really think that farmers are so stupid they will keep using glyphosate despite there being no benefit?'
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