Spanish Campaigners Lobby for Glyphosate Ban After EU Fails to Reach Consensus

Environmental cam­paign­ers in Spain have called on the gov­ern­ment to ban the con­tro­ver­sial her­bi­cide glyphosate and sup­port the tran­si­tion to pes­ti­cide-free agri­cul­ture.

The Asociación Eco Ciudadana Por Un Mar Vivo (Eco-cit­i­zen Association for a Living Sea) and 150 other advo­cacy groups sent the peti­tion in the wake of a recent study, which found lev­els of glyphosate that ​“far exceed” the legal lim­its in Mar Menor.

Mar Menor is a coastal lagoon in the south­east­ern Spanish autonomous com­mu­nity of Murcia.

In October 2022, researchers col­lected sam­ples from two loca­tions on the lagoon and found the glyphosate lev­els to reach 0.4 micro­grams per liter, four times above the legal limit. The find­ings of the study were pub­lished in late 2023.

Glyphosate, com­monly sold under Bayer’s Roundup brand, is used by olive grow­ers and in many other types of crops.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) has clas­si­fied it as ​“prob­a­bly car­cino­genic in humans,” sep­a­rate research has dis­puted this find­ing.

Meanwhile, a lit­er­a­ture review from the Soil Association, a char­ity, found that glyphosate may dam­age soil health by inter­fer­ing with the repro­duc­tion of myc­or­rhizal fungi, which improve drought tol­er­ance and help plants stave off pathogens.

According to Caroline Rivière, a spokesper­son for the Eco-cit­i­zen Association for a Living Sea, the glyphosate likely accu­mu­lated in the lagoon due to agri­cul­tural runoff from rain­fall.

“We were con­vinced that glyphosate was being used exces­sively in the area due to var­i­ous indi­ca­tions, but we lacked evi­dence,” she told Olive Oil Times. ​“This was our oppor­tu­nity to prove it.”

While the researchers could not iden­tify the source of the runoff, high-den­sity olive groves are located near the west­ern coast of the lagoon and 3.5 kilo­me­ters from the Albujón Ravine, one of the sites tested for the study.

The other sam­ple was taken from the perime­ter canal of San Pedro del Pinatar, located on the lagoon’s north­ern shore.

According to data from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Murcia pro­duced 7,710 tons of olive oil in the 2023/24 crop year. Overall, Spain has yielded 775,320 tons in the cur­rent har­vest.

Rivière believes that the use of glyphosate is harm­ing the pop­u­la­tion of Murcia and the envi­ron­ment.

“There are high rates of can­cer, mis­car­riage and autism in the region of Murcia,” Rivière said. ​“That is why we believe, as the WHO states, that there is a real con­nec­tion between pes­ti­cides like glyphosate and ill­nesses.”

She added that this raises seri­ous con­cerns about the imme­di­ate and long-term con­se­quences for the health of those liv­ing in the region and Mar Menor’s del­i­cately bal­anced ecosys­tem.

“Over time, with all the chem­i­cals used in the water­shed flow­ing into the Mar Menor, includ­ing glyphosate, the soil will become com­pletely ster­ile for crops, and extra soil farm­ing will be nec­es­sary,” Rivière said.

“The marine sys­tem is an ecosys­tem in which mul­ti­ple fac­tors inter­sect, espe­cially in the case of the Mar Menor,” she added. ​“Glyphosate is one of the main fac­tors that desta­bi­lize this sys­tem. As long as glyphosate reaches the Mar Menor, it can­not be saved. Many stud­ies world­wide demon­strate this.”

Campaigners also sent the peti­tion in response to the European Commission’s deci­sion to per­mit glyphosate’s use for ten more years after European Union mem­ber states failed to agree on a ban in September.

“We knew that for polit­i­cal and eco­nomic rea­sons, the E.U. would renew the autho­riza­tion for glyphosate use,” Rivière said. ​“The eco­nomic inter­ests of many com­pa­nies were too impor­tant for the cur­rent European econ­omy.”

“Europe is an eco­nomic union, not a social or health union,” she added. ​“Many stud­ies world­wide show that glyphosate affects marine sys­tems, includ­ing algae, plants, microor­gan­isms, mol­lusks and fish,” she added. ​“As we empha­sized ear­lier, it affects human health.”

The deci­sion reflects ongo­ing debate among mem­ber states, with Germany and France oppos­ing glyphosate’s re-autho­riza­tion. However, Germany lifted its ban on the her­bi­cide tem­porar­ily until June 2024.

“We see that we have a very long bat­tle ahead because this deci­sion will directly affect our envi­ron­ment,” Rivière said. ​“However, if we gather enough evi­dence and exert enough social pres­sure, there is the pos­si­bil­ity of ban­ning or at least fur­ther lim­it­ing glyphosate in our area through national or local legal or polit­i­cal deci­sions.”

• La Verdad
• La Opinión de Murcia
• Soil Association