Chair of the NSW Farmers Ag Science committee Dave Mailler thought it needed to be brought back to an Australian context because the American legal and political systems were very different.

He said an extensive enquiry last year established the independence of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines as a regulatory authority, and should give all Australians confidence in its decisions.

"The US regulatory authority still maintains it is safe, the court cases we've seen in America are largely determined on who runs the best legal argument and not necessarily about the science," Mr Mailler said.

"As farmers generally, we keep pointing back to the science which says it's safe. We saw last year, the Four Corners expose on glyphosate and really it didn't establish a smoking gun at all.

ALSO READ:

"It basically fizzled out. What it showed was the product we are using in Australia has significant environmental, safety and economic advantages, and when used as instructed the product is an integral part of our system."

Mr Mailler said more than 800 scientific studies and reviews, including numerous independent regulatory safety assessments, support the fact that glyphosate was safe.

"NSW Farmers will continue to promote best-practice use of glyphosate and other chemicals as per label instructions," he said.

"The technology we're using today is so different to the technology we were using even 20 years ago. Spraying technology has gone ahead leaps and bounds in the last two decades. We're getting smarter about how we interact with these compounds and how we utilise them.

"From a farming perspective, it is really important that we maintain glyphosate as one of those choices farmers can make in their farming systems. If you chose not to use glyphosate, that's fine, if you choose to use it then you should be able to."

Have your say. Click this link to send a letter to the editor.