[Aunt Sally]

I'm not sure that's what you meant, me dear.  This is what you said:

It feels we are regressing from the early days of organic growing, where corporations are on the offensive, and no individual will be able to trust anything that eminates from these big companies. Does this website forum of layman allotmenteers have a policy on this subject ? Has it ever considered lobbying one way or the other ?

We certainly don't support conspiracy theories here.

[JayG]

Surely, we are all agreed 100% that such residues in manure are not a good thing for our growing. Where can there be a disagreement about that on this forum ?

I'm sure than no-one would disagree that herbicide residues either in compost or manure is 'a bad thing', but the original question in this thread was about the chances of locally sourced horse manure being contaminated, and this discussion has highlighted the fact that there is no simple yes/no answer to that when it comes to either compost or manure, whether sourced locally or bought from more 'reliable' retail outlets.

[Aunt Sally]

We collect a ton of horse manure each week for our small allotment site. 

No problem with herbicides. But it's sensible to verify that with the owners before collecting from a new source.

[Ema]

I grew a few runner beans in paper cups indoors to see how they performed, 4 beans in well mixed 50/50 compost and horse manure, 4 in just compost. All grew well no problem, when I had 2 sets of leaves I threw them away and used the muck