New Zealand Food Safety’s decision to retain strict glyphosate residue limits on cereals marks a major victory for public health advocates — but campaigners warn that loopholes and weak enforcement still undermine the outcome.
Following more than 3,100 submissions, the regulator confirmed residue caps for wheat, barley, and oats will remain at 0.1 mg/kg, with pre-harvest spraying now banned on human-consumption grain. However, No More Glyphosate NZ says the review “only formalised what industry had already done” as many millers and exporters had long restricted glyphosate use to meet overseas market standards.
While the cereal outcome was hailed as progress, the group noted peas will still carry a higher 6 mg/kg limit in line with international trade norms. The ban also doesn’t extend to animal feed, raising concerns about cross-contamination and indirect exposure through meat, milk, and eggs. Equally troubling, the group says past breaches — including wheat samples testing nearly 60 times over the legal limit — went unpunished, with regulators treating limits as guidelines rather than enforceable rules.
No More Glyphosate NZ also criticised regulators for relying on outdated 1990s nutrition data and ignoring risks posed by glyphosate-based formulations such as Roundup®, which contain untested co-formulants like POEA.
The group is calling for stronger enforcement, updated dietary modelling, greater transparency on pesticide formulations, and reviews of other high-residue produce. “This is progress,” the group said, “but without enforcement and modern data, limits are just numbers on paper.”
For more information on the campaign, visit the No More Glyphosate NZ website.
The slow poisoning of the people at the behest of our foreign owned and controlled government continues then.
Barley typically matures about two weeks earlier than wheat, depending on the variety and growing conditions.
This difference is due to barley’s shorter growing season and earlier optimal flowering time, which makes it a valuable crop in regions with limited moisture or shorter summers.
Barley flowers earlier than wheat, reducing its exposure to late-season heat or drought stress.
Thermal time accumulation (heat units needed to reach maturity) is lower for barley than for most wheat varieties.
Barley tends to be less sensitive to day length and cold requirements than wheat, allowing faster development.
Barley’s early maturity allows for staggered harvests, reducing pressure on equipment and labor.
It’s often used in rotations to manage disease cycles and optimize soil health.
In forage systems, barley can provide earlier grazing or silage options than wheat.
This place is the ecological and biological wild West. Just look at this outrageous Gene Tech Bill. It tells you everything you need to know and then some.
Canterbury is half NZ’s cereals area approx 50,000Ha and been working in it long time.
Glyph is a low risk compound compared to others, but the average punter isn’t practically around agchem to understand.
Responsible farmers apply these compounds 100% take a portion of damage doing so with PPE but there is a safe way to do so. Point being they live full life expectancy and poor applicators don’t.
Holding a phone in your hand is more dangerous.
99% of glyph used in farming is for burndown pre-plant timing, not scenecsing crops and if so it’s feed eg. Going to dairy farms to feed cows.
We can’t compete with export markets by ecomies of scale.
Take this tool out of ag-chem, only more expensive alternatives fill void. Food prices inflate.
There are organic farms out there deep cultivating, rotating, stocking farms right to avoid chem use but the industry won’t change yet for yield and returns.
Complex issue with this narrative only small portion true. Way more other things are killing us.
I’d love to see these hippies go after globalists here in NZ but they won’t.
Funny how NZ had sustainable farms long before Glyphosate turn up on the scene. Funny too, how farmers in other nations, that limit or ban this shit, manage to maintain working profitable farms. The real problem for farmers is globalist government trying to shut them down, by inflating their costs and then turn them into pine plantations. No hippies in sight, just arseholes in suits from Wellington mate.