Fully alignedThis is important to us because, in a bid to reduce border checks on agri-food products, the move will see UK regulations on food and agriculture production methods fully aligned with the current - and future – rules operating across the EU. So the merchants stressed that it was vital that growers understood the impact which applying glyphosate will have on the marketability of their crops before deciding whether to use it as a harvest aid. However, this flagged up an issue which is likely to be of much greater importance for the crops which we will soon be putting back in the ground. And, while they might still be a minority crop, harvesting the likes of beans and other pulses without glyphosate would be a non-starter in this country. And it’s worth remembering that it’s not long since a leading farm consultancy company warned that an overnight switch to EU rules on crop protection products alone could cost £500m-£800m in lost yields and husbandry changes.