A new regulation is intended to ensure that the pesticide can still be used next month. But some countries want to allow it in protected areas – and thus risk a total ban.
Everything could have happened very quietly. Next week, the Federal Council would have approved the amendment to the “Plant Protection Products Application Ordinance” and nobody would have taken much notice. And that despite the fact that it concerns glyphosate – the substance against which people took to the streets, went to court or collected signatures just a few years ago. The amended ordinance was actually supposed to have quietly cleared the way for the herbicide again. But the quiet is now probably over.