Glyphosate is by far the safest and most environmentally friendly herbicide ever made.
The problems with Glyphosate have arisen when it is used as a wholescale spray and used to spray glyphosate-resistant crops. This is the fault of Monsanto. They are responsible for causing the problems associated with it. It has been used for decades on the same pastures and fields in the US with disastrous results of impoverished soils and depleted micro-organisms. Glyphosate binds to soil particles in the first couple of centimeters for soil and is metabolised into harmless substances in a couple of weeks. It does not travel through the soil to enter other crops nearby. BUT used repeatedly on the same soil it gradually kills off the soil microorganisms which maintain soil health. When I worked as a park ranger for 16 years I saw very quickly that spraying is not effective in removing weeds from conservation areas as it leaves bare areas where weeds rapidly reinvade. So I invented these gels so that you only remove the weed and leave the desirable plants to fill in the space so that no more weeds can grow.
Because of bad advice from companies like Monsanto, Glyphosate has been sprayed for many years by people wearing no protective equipment at all. We do not go out in the sun without sun protection. This is just plain stupidity and not the fault of the herbicide. Used wisely and correctly like any substance it is amazingly useful. NZ conservation and environmental organisations would be lost without it. The alternatives, like Metsulfuron and Picloram, are soil residual and can spread through the soil. We at Cut’n’Paste designed our Glyphosate gels to make them safe and effective and anyone using them as recommended has no danger.
I therefore highly recommend that you use the Glyphoaste gels wherever possible And MetGel only for things that do not respond well to Glyphosate like Ginger and Agapanthus. Similarily with Picloram which is great for Moth plant and Privets and Rhamnus. However, with almost everything a Glyphosate gel will work if used carefully
