THIS INDUSTRY is in danger of losing some of its key arable husbandry weapons to political lobbying in Europe which have nothing to do with actuality or science.

It is a nonsense that the likes of glyphosate, a cheap and cheerful kill for troublesome weeds which severely affect crop yield, is even being considered for a ban by the chattering classes of Brussels. An all-out ban on the chemical will have a drastic effect on food production across Europe.

What it will do is, make arable crop production in the EU – and we are included in that for the time being – virtually untenable. Look out for lower yield, drastically reduced quality and higher costs.

Now, if that’s not a recipe for a food shortage, then what is! Or maybe the greater plan is to let the North Americans and the South Americans use whatever they want on their crops and then send them to us, where we will the eat the damned things anyway!

For those who voted ‘Yes’ to Brexit in the fulsome hope that the green-driven agendas so prevalent in the corridors of power in Brussels, would be over-ruled in the UK, can think again.

You do not have to delve very far into our past abilities to gold-plate every regulation ever to have come out of Europe, to realise that this is a faint hope.

There’s also the very fact that it will be highly unlikely that exports from the UK to Europe – once Brexit has happened – will be on less of a regulatory basis than they will be in the EU 26. In other words, we will have left the EU, but their rules will still apply.

So, we will have to follow, like sheep, the neonicotinoid ban, a glyphosate ban that is teetering on the abyss and essential seed treatments that guard crops against the ravages of pests.

Without such modern technology at our fingertips, we might just as well head back into the Dark Ages. Then, we won’t have enough to feed the UK population, let alone export any produce abroad.

We then import grains, for instance, from places around the world that still use glyphosate, neonics and GM ... honestly, you couldn’t make it up!