Keep Aminopyralid banned.

[glallotments]

Good for you Monika.
I think DOW have agreed to collect contaminated manure as part of an arrangement with the CRD so maybe at the moment when they are trying to be responsible prior to relicensing they would have agreed!

[glallotments]

It's 1480 now but if you signed check that your name has appeared. Someone today told me they had signed but they are not on the list. If it has happened to one it is likely to have happened to other people. When you sign up an email is sent to the email address that you gave. You have to verify this in order for your name to be added - it just needs you to click the link in the email. The problem is that some email accounts send the message into the junk or spam box. (Obvious doesn't like anything that comes from the government). If you have signed up please check you name is on the list and if not check your email including junk box for a message that is from 10 Downing Street.

If you can't find an email then please sign up again.

[Johnboy]

Hi Glallotments,
The list only shows the last 500 signings but if you click on complete list you will only then get the entire list. Perhaps this is why people do not find their name.
JB.

[glallotments]

Not in this case JB - I looked for this particular person's name for him and it wasn't on the list at all.

To make sure I copied the whole list into MS Word and sorted it alphabetically and he certainly wasn't there.

[glallotments]

Now over 2000 signatures and rising!

Tom Watson MP has also sent a very supportive letter to John, the petition creator.

[bigshod]

End of the battle. See http://www.dowagro.com/uk/aminopyralidsuspension.htm

[Chantal]

But not, I suspect, the end of the war...

[glallotments]

It's almost as though the announcement has motivated people to sign the petition even though it is technically too late 2,425 just now.

At least the PM will have to respond as signatures are over 500.

I'm still keeping information about anyone who becomes or has been a victim to monitor how thngs progress under the stewardship so anyone who is or has been a victim email my website or send me a PM.

[Monika]

Many thanks, glallotments, for all your hard work. I have read DOW Agrochemicals' press release and the details of the stewardship (APs only to be used on pastures for grazing and not meadows for mowing), but one thing that still worries me as a gardener who has been affected:

Picture the scene - cows come into the milking parlour twice a day. When they have done their bit, the parlour is sluiced down with the runoff going into the slurry pit which is later spread on the meadow which is mowed for silage or hay the following summer. The cows eat this silage/hay the following winter. Now, has the aminopyralid been "thinned down" sufficiently by that time? Otherwise the whole story will start again.

[Johnboy]

Hi Glallotments,
Deep down I have a rage and that rage will remain whilst AP is able to be used! I am so cross I am not yet settled enough to read the terms of the Stewardship scheme.
This Stewardship is a farce if what Monika says is true. With most farms permanent pasture is a thing of the past and has been really for a great many years. Just at present locally there are fields of grass which we term as pasture being spread with literally hundreds of tons of manure.
This will be grazed next spring but the sheep and cattle will be removed from most of them for the Hay, Haylage or silage to be taken, allowed to recover and then grazed again. In the spring the grass is walked and perennial weeds are dealt with. So to which sort of pasture do they refer?
At present we do not know if the second generation AP will have any effects on the manure and the way things are going we never will.
To actually give it approval before the petition is read is a totally disingenuous act of the behalf of the government.
JB.

[glallotments]

The CRD reasoning behind the reapproval of the licence for AP is on it's website here
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/safe_use.asp?id=2799

A point that I was drawn to was:
"The second product is for use against invasive and pernicious weeds in amenity situations (e.g. ragwort and Japanese knotweed on roadside verges, railway embankments or industrial areas) which are rarely grazed and where there is no fodder or manure collection".

I just wonder how much this will impact on indigenous wild flowers?

[glallotments]

The following correspondence from the CRD has been received by one of my contacts. It contains information that will be of interest to all gardeners.

"It is certainly possible that stocks of manure containing aminopyralid residues from use in 2007 and 2008 might still be available so you will, I'm sure, accept that, even with Dow's stewardship programme, anyone now obtaining manure for their garden or allotment will need to assure themselves that the manure is suitable for their needs, and not only in respect of herbicide residues such as aminopyralid, but also any other 'contaminants' such as veterinary medicine residues that they would not want.

The only aminopyralid products which may now legally be used are the two products for which approval has recently been granted; these are Forefront with approval number 14701 and Mileway with approval number 14702. Any aminopyralid product with any other approval number may now only be stored for disposal and may not be used; anyone using these 'old' products will be doing so illegally and will be subject to appropriate enforcement should they be iscovered to be doing so.

We will, of course, continue to monitor this issue so if you do come across evidence that things are not working as anticipated - whether this is stocks of manure containing aminopyralid reaching allotments and gardens, or the incorrect or illegal use of aminopyralid products - do please let both us and Dow know."

[glallotments]

The CRD reasoning behind the reapproval of the licence for AP is on it's website here
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/safe_use.asp?id=2799

A point that I was drawn to was:
"The second product is for use against invasive and pernicious weeds in amenity situations (e.g. ragwort and Japanese knotweed on roadside verges, railway embankments or industrial areas) which are rarely grazed and where there is no fodder or manure collection".

I just wonder how much this will impact on indigenous wild flowers?

A contact found this on the DOW website:
Will any Dow AgroSciences product control ragwort?
No Dow AgroSciences product is recommended for control of ragwort. The best method of control is to dig them up. 2,4-D can be used as an overall spray.

Is it only me who sees this as contradictory?

By the way the petition is still climbing - I think some see it as a way of saying that they don't agree with the decsion.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear glallotments, i think what they are trying to say is, they have no spray that will only target ragwort, but you can use a general spray for broad leaved weeds that will also target ragwort.

[Johnboy]

Hi Glallotments,
It would be OK to spray against Ragwort on anywhere there is not a Hay or Silage crop to be taken but certainly not with AP. The best way is to pull it out of the ground, (with gloved hands) bag it and burn it. If you spray it you may well kill the plants but in certain cases only ripen the seeds so they grow again the following year in increased volumes.
JB.