Browning Steffan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrowning Steffan: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2586. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STEFFAN BROWNING (Green):Yesterday an international research study was published by the American Society for Microbiology on its open access journal mBio. The significance of this report is that it found that some herbicides in common garden use in common agricultural use and often in pesticide food residues may undermine antibiotic therapy and increase levels of antibiotic resistance in some disease-causing bacteria. One of the herbicides was Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup and it is familiar to most New Zealanders including those over here. That is right—the ubiquitous Roundup the Roundup in many garden sheds and on most farms and many many vineyards has once again been seriously implicated with effects that could be seriously affecting our children’s health our health and that of animals and even bees.But this study is not on its own. Just 5 days ago we heard that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has identified glyphosate the principal ingredient in Roundup as a probable carcinogen. We need to take this exceptionally seriously. There are numerous other reports that show evidence is mounting that there are health risks associated with Roundup from babies to bees yet we are not seeing evidence that this Government is taking these real risks seriously. There are residues including those in Roundup or its breakdown chemicals in many of the foods we eat and Roundup is widely used on people’s backyards driveways footpaths roads and increasingly whole paddocks and hillsides. We know that the folklore about drinking Roundup is absolutely dangerous rubbish. Roundup is increasingly seen as dangerous right up to the United Nations. It is a probable carcinogen and now linked to antibiotic resistance. Those are just this week’s entries on the list. There are many more effects including birth defects and very concerning effects on the environment including on bees and on the soil biology of our productive lands.Considering the evidence of pesticides affecting human health typically we find that the Ministry for Primary Industries’ total diet survey is done something like every 5 years. It is only a relatively small sample of foods as well—so when will this Government increase monitoring of foods and residues? Unfortunately the Ministry for Primary Industries spins the results of those residue tests and it quotes many many compounds in multi-residue tests that are not even relevant. It does that to statistically inflate its testing effort but it plays down the fact that most fruit and vegetables and imported corn and soy products will have some pesticide residues in them. That is right—most of the foods have some pesticide residues in them.So when will this Government get stuck in and address the fact that consumers want no pesticides in their food? They want no carcinogenic ones none that increase antibiotic resistance none that are endocrine disruptors no neurotoxins—they want none. When will this Government get pesticides like Roundup out of New Zealanders’ food? Almost all the 600 Ministry for Primary Industries samples analysed in the Safe Food Campaign’s dirty dozen list contained pesticide residues. They are impacting on human health even at low residue levels and the Government needs to lift its game to get pesticides out of New Zealand’s food.Other studies are much more direct. Among New Zealanders I am sick of hearing of friends being taken to the hospice—including one of mine today—and hearing of friends and family dying or suffering from cancers significant allergies and ongoing health issues. We all have friends in that situation. It does not have to be that way and it was not once. When will this Government care about our babies and the bees and stop relying on single-ingredient chemical safety tests when we know that the chemicals in each of the compounds also have adjuvants that are not being considered by our food safety experts and that have been shown to increase toxicity by up to a thousandfold? Roundup is far more than its principal ingredient glyphosate. Let us test food—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.