Poisoning the beach... So sad on 26th May 2021 at around 5pm  to see Glyphosate being used by the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River Shire at Cowaramup Bay main beach. So unnecessary. Glyphosate causes cancer. There must be other ways to approach weed issues than putting poison on the land. What about all the children, people and critters living there let alone the plants? And with rain coming it will wash into the sea where we swim. Toxic! I spoke to the person applying it and his hands were covered in glyphosate, looking like blood and I said it causes cancer and he said I know! When will the madness stop? I could smell the glyphosate when swimming and left the beach straight away but the plants couldn’t leave. So we are trying to build tourism and then we poison our best assets. Our world is so human centric. ~ Vanya Cullen

Vanya, an award-winning biodynamic winemaker, posted her concern on Facebook with much support. One friend commented and tagged the Shire for comment:

"I can’t understand how doing this on the beach is aligned with aiming for eco destination status Shire of Augusta Margaret River - do you care to comment?"

The Shire has been contacted and gave a prompt response saying that the area is being rehabilitated and school children and members of local Gracetown  community  are coming next week to pullout Sea Spurge and revegetate with native plants.Do they know about the glyphosate spraying?.Good intentions but you don’t need to spray Glyphosate beforehand! It can be removed by hand especially at such a place of public use considered sacred and safe by many.

So we've created this petition to try and stop the poison being used and hopefully come up with some safer and wiser options for our beautiful Region. In the photo, you can see the Glyphosate in red (the post in the foreground has a large red spraying of it at the base, but is hidden with the crop).

Please sign if you agree and share with your friends on social media.

If you'd like to be more informed, here's an article with research from the ABC how this problem is impacting soils around the world. Australia is highlighted as a contamination "hot spot": https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2020-03-19/international-glyphosate-roundup-hotspot-map/12063156

Many thanks and much love - let common sense prevail!