Organic gardening specialists, Garden Organic, have reported that incidents of apparent contamination of manure and compost are being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive.
What is aminopyralid?
Aminopyralid is a weedkiller produced by agricultural chemical manufacturer, Corteva, which is used to kill grasses and weeds on farmland.
Crops sprayed with aminopyralid are not supposed to be fed to cattle and horses because it doesn’t break down in the animal’s digestive system and is still active in the manure that is produced subsequently.
If gardeners use this manure on their crops, the crops are likely to not develop properly, with leaves curling and the plant being lacklustre. Charles Dowding, advocate of the No Dig Gardening approach has produced some videos on this subject https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7vr-GlzuZs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D1idnMNKng.
Anyone who suspects their plants have been affected by this can send an email to CRDEnforcement@hse.gov.uk and UKHotline@corteva.com, headed “Aminopyralid contamination”.
