Defra remains committed to keeping glyphosate available for farmers and growers to use, environment secretary Therese Coffey has said.

Ms Coffey was roundly applauded at the NFU’s Back British Farming Day event at Westminster on Wednesday (13 September) when she signalled her department’s continuing support for glyphosate use in UK agriculture.

See also: Efsa glyphosate review finds ‘no critical areas of concern’

“Absolutely, this government is on your side,” said Ms Coffey. “Since I’ve been in post in the last year, we have given an absolute commitment to continuing glyphosate.

“The science is clear. The farmers need it. It is critical to regenerative farming. It is staying.”

Ms Coffey said Defra “will continue to be led by the science” and would “not be put off course by lots of other campaigns when we know we need to work together with our farming sector”.

Speaking during a press meeting later, Ms Coffey said her support for glyphosate stemmed from a visit to the “Godfather of regenerative farming” Tony Reynolds’s farm in Bourne, south Lincolnshire.

“I remember when we visited his farm a few years ago and he said we cannot do this [regenerative farming] without glyphosate,” she told reporters. “I go to other regenerative farmers. They are desperate to keep glyphosate.

“Frankly, a few years ago, I was successful in making sure the EU continued glyphosate because the science showed it, the commission wanted it to continue and we got that.

“Now we are running our own rules. We will keep going with the science and it’s very clear glyphosate is absolutely fine to be used.”

Asked if Labour would ban glyphosate if it wins power, shadow Defra farm minister Daniel Zeichner said: “We know glyphosate plays a crucial role, particularly in regenerative farming, but as with everything, if new scientific evidence becomes available, it is a highly contentious subject.

“Just because the EU does something, doesn’t mean to say we’d necessarily have to. Obviously we’d look at it closely, but we understand how important it is to regenerative farming, which we all want to encourage.

“Let’s wait and see what happens.” 

Glyphosate, which is the world’s most widely used herbicide (weedkiller) and is the key active ingredient in Bayer’s Roundup products, remains approved for use in Great Britain until at least 2025.

EU licence renewal

It is approved for use in the EU until 15 December 2023. The European Food Safety Agency (Efsa), the EU’s food safety regulator, published its final renewal report on 13 September that glyphosate was safe enough for use in agriculture.

Member states have been invited by the European Commission to decide whether to extend the renewal licence for glyphosate.

In 2015, the World Health Organization classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, but Bayer insists it is safe to use and it continues to defend the product’s 40-year safety record.