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Greenpeace Serves Luxon A Mock Poisonous Porridge To Highlight Glyphosate Rule Change

Greenpeace did invite the PM to breakfast this morning along with a Labour representative. However, the PM did not accept the invitation and so a Christopher Luxon lookalike took his place / Supplied

The "Prime Minister" enjoyed a bowl of pretend poisonous porridge on parliament steps with Greenpeace this morning.

The breakfast at parliament, attended by a Christopher Luxon lookalike, highlights the Government’s proposal to raise the legal limit of glyphosate residues allowed in staple grains like wheat, oats and barley - from 0.1 mg/kg to 10 mg/kg - a 100-fold increase.

For wheat, this new limit is double what’s permitted in Australia and Canada.

"I know the Luxon government has been feeding schoolkids melted plastic for lunch, but seasoning their breakfast with 100 times more toxic herbicide residue is a new low," says Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop.

"Our kids, and every New Zealander, have a right to safe food. But this Government is proposing to allow 100 times more of a probable carcinogen onto the grains that feed us every day."

Glyphosate is the key ingredient in Roundup, and the World Health Organisation classifies it as a probable human carcinogen. They also say it's potentially genotoxic, meaning it could damage DNA.

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Bayer - which bought out Monsanto - sells the herbicide and has already been ordered by U.S. courts to pay billions to people harmed by Roundup, with another 60,000 legal cases still pending.

The Government has invited submissions on their proposal, which are due on May 16.

"The Prime Minister seems more interested in the profits of big agrichemical giants like Bayer than they are in the health of New Zealanders," says Toop.

"Instead of making it easier to spray toxic chemicals on our food, the Government should be supporting farmers to transition to ecological farming that protects people and the planet."

Greenpeace did invite the Prime Minister to breakfast this morning along with a Labour representative. However, the Prime Minister did not accept the invitation and so a Christopher Luxon lookalike took his place.

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