Example of unhealthy tomato leaves curling inwards, affected by contaminated manure. Photograph: Katherine Rose
Gardeners who have unwittingly poisoned their own vegetables by applying manure contaminated with a powerful new herbicide are incensed - and rightly so.
Seeing months of hard work result in deformed and withered produce must be heartbreaking. But this is the picture on allotments and vegetable plots across the UK because manure containing the hormone-based herbicide aminopyralid has been sold to grow-your-own enthusiasts.
It is something that should never have happened. The herbicide - introduced just two years ago by Dow AgroSciences Ltd and found in several of its products - is not approved to be used on food crops.
It carries a warning to that effect on its label. There are warnings, too, about ensuring manure from livestock which has grazed or been fed grass treated with the weedkiller does not find its way onto gardens.
But, as affected gardeners view their distorted potatoes, tomatoes, beans and peas and wonder if their other vegetables are safe to eat, it is clear something has gone badly wrong. And now they are looking for someone to blame.
Should the finger be pointed at Dow AgroSciences? While admitting some of the manure can be linked back to their products, the company says it is by no means clear that all the episodes of contamination now being reported are as a result of aminopyralid.
They have broken no rules. Nevertheless, they acknowledge it is "undoubtedly' a problem. To help, they have set up an online hotline and posted an information page on their website which advises concerned people to email them at UKHotline@dow.com.
They are also now planning a publicity campaign to drive home the message to farmers that they must handle these products with utmost care, and to warn gardeners they must check the provenance of any manure they buy.
Should the farmer who sold the manure be held responsible? That is not an easy one. In some cases the farmer had not sprayed his grassland at all and behaved completely responsibly, but still the manure was contaminated. One explanation could be that the farmer bought in silage off other farmers to feed livestock - and one of them had been sprayed. Or, perhaps, it came from a horse fed hay bought from a hay merchant, who bought from several farmers. Tracing back the chain becomes horribly complicated.
Should the product be banned? Certainly that's the opinion of some gardeners I spoke to for the story in today's Observer. Or will strengthening the label warning be enough to prevent the problem escalating? These are just some of the questions currently being debated in the gardening community.
