Were it not for the enforced delay around the re-registration of glyphosate in the EU, it would be getting a lot more column inches currently as the December deadline approaches.

While there may seem to be a smaller number of groups calling for its removal, there are still those who object to the enforced additional year caused by delays in the evaluation process.

Indeed, the usual political posturing in the European Commission recently failed to provide agreement for the additional year.

Still, it is interesting to note that there are other voices which seem to have gone relatively quiet in recent times.

Concerns

That is not to say that they do not have concerns, but they seem to have come to realise that the chemical active, used appropriately, can be an important part of our future efforts to help tackle climate change.

That said, the question might still be asked if we were to get a different molecule that would do the same job as glyphosate, while also tackling resistant weeds, would it be seen as more acceptable or perhaps even more objectionable?

Well, it seems that there is some progress being made in that direction. This could make this question very real for objectors who may soon have to define whether it is the molecule that they object to or the corporation that made it.

The search for alternatives

While the technical discovery of glyphosate was a procedural mistake in Monsanto’s research laboratories in St Louis, current research at Western Australia’s Curtin University Centre for Crop and Disease Management has been focusing on alternative molecules, some of which could be as effective as glyphosate.

The researchers have been looking at using molecules that are normally found in fungi for their potential herbicidal properties.

Indeed, the ones that are generating the most excitement at the moment are the same as molecules found in normal everyday medication for cholesterol treatment.

The researchers indicate that the statin molecule found in cholesterol medication could be ‘as effective as glyphosate’.

This research work in Australia is more driven by the need to fight herbicide resistance than the fear of the loss of the molecule, as is the case in the EU.

Specific pathway

The specific statin compounds being examined were found to work as a herbicide. They kill weeds by inhibiting a specific enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase.

Enzymes are critical elements of biochemical cycles that make essential life processes happen.

When this enzyme is inhibited, it reduces or prevents the production of cholesterol, lipids, vitamins and other hormones in the plant, thus resulting in its death.

The research has found that these statins worked well as a foliar-applied herbicide.

However, they rightly suggest that it could take up to 15 years to develop them as a commercial product.

It is hoped that some individual molecules may have particularly safe or environmentally friendly properties that could speed up their evaluation, given that they are all natural compounds found in free-living fungi.