Image: AANB Facebook
The Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick (AANB) and Bleuets NB Blueberries (BNBB), which represents and serves the province’s blueberry growers, are opposing plans by the Liberal, Green and People’s Alliance parties to ban the use of the herbicide glyphosate.
AANB, which represents around 800 farmers in the province, said in a release that the move would “deeply affect a wide variety of New Brunswick farmers who grow crops such as potato, fruits, vegetable, cereals, pulse, corn, canola and soybean.”
BNBB also made its stance public through a press release Wednesday, saying local government “should not be able to dictate the use of approved pesticides by Health Canada.”
“We believe it will greatly harm the Wild blueberry industry, as producers use glyphosate as a tool in the production of blueberries,” the industry organization said in the release.
AANB President Lisa Ashworth told Huddle while it’s interesting that agriculture is being discussed in the lead-up to the September 14 provincial election, she says the debate around glyphosate should be “based on science, not emotion.”
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She says for farmers to remain competitive in the global market and support the local economy, access to tools that can effectively manage weed, insects, and other problems that threaten crops is key. Farmers are anxious that banning glyphosate could create an unpredictable environment that hinders growth and investment.
“There’s no chance of us going back to the good old days of having people in the field pulling weeds by hand. We can’t grow enough food to sustain ourselves or the rest of the world by getting rid of tools like this,” she said.
Just like the need for temporary foreign workers, glyphosate usage is yet another issue related to the agriculture industry that’s misunderstood, she said.
Products like glyphosate, AANB and BBNB noted, are among the most important and safest tools available for crop management. There is currently no safer alternative, Ashworth said. There are other chemicals that could get farmers the same outcome, but they’re less safe and more expensive, she said.
“That’s what we’ve been saying from the get-go. If you would like to ban this one, please give us an alternative. There is no alternative at this time and that’s why it’s so widely used. Because it can be used in small amounts … and it’s well studied,” she said. “That’s what makes people in agriculture nervous … we don’t have an alternative.”
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She says even just banning it on Crown land would give the perception that glyphosate isn’t safe to use, and set a precedent for a wider ban. Additionally, phasing out the chemical over a few years, as proposed by the Liberal Party, wouldn’t help because there’s no alternative in the trial phase already and it would take a long time before something better comes along, she added.
AANB notes that Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the European Food Safety Authority have studied the chemical and concludes it doesn’t increase cancer risk.
While glyphosate is approved for use by Health Canada, it has been deemed “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Both AANB and BBNB also point out that any commercial chemical purchase and use of chemicals like glyphosate would require farmers to have a valid applicator license, which include completing training and passing an exam covering pesticide legislation, pest management, environmental impacts, application technology, safety, emergency responses and labelling.
According to BBNB’s 2018 study, the blueberry industry has an annual economic impact of over $38-million and generates over 700 jobs in the province. Last year, around 35,000 acres of land was used to grow blueberries, with around 24,000 acres being crown land.
AANB says the agricultural industry employed 4,180 people in 2019 and food manufacturing employed another 5,245 people.
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Ashworth says New Brunswick’s farmers, already not making much money, won’t be the ones using extra chemicals on purpose. For them, maintaining the health of their environment, as well as the quality of produce, is important for business.
The AANB backs “the risk-based science process of the CPMRA and others in their findings that glyphosate use does not pose a cancer risk.” Ashworth urges political parties to get more information about the issue.
“It’s important for us to see what people’s concerns are, and it’s important for people to understand what it is that we’re actually doing. With the price of chemicals, I can assure anybody that they’re not used without a great deal of care,” she said.
Inda Intiar is a report with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
