glyphosate

A key EPA official who played a role in deciding the government’s cancer designation on Roundup, Monsanto’s weedkiller, was routinely communicating with company officials, according to federal court documents unsealed Tuesday. The official reportedly told the company that he could kill another agency’s investigation into glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.

Hawaiian lawmakers killed a bill that would have required agribusiness companies like Monsanto and Syngenta to notify nearby residents before spraying pesticides, says Civil Beat. “Reporting provisions requiring notifications for each application would be very onerous and difficult to carry out,” testified Warren Mayberry, DuPont Pioneer’s senior manager of government affairs.

The most widely used herbicide in the world, glyphosate, faces hundreds of legal challenges from cancer victims, primarlly agricultural and landscape workers, who blame the chemical for their illnesses, says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Attorney Tim Litzenburg says the total could run into the thousands in the next two months because the statute of limitations is running out in many states.

Greenpeace claims that several members on the European Chemical Agency (ECHA), set to decide today whether to grant the controversial pesticide glyphosate another 15-year license to be sold in the EU, have a conflict of interest, says The Independent.

After waiting for nearly 10 months for EPA to reply to its public-records request, the consumer group U.S. Right to Know filed suit in federal court for access to agency documents involved in deciding the cancer risk of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world. The WHO cancer agency determined the herbicide is "probably carcinogenic to humans" in 2015 but an EPA review committee in 2016 decided glyphosate is "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans" at doses relevant to human health risk assessment.

The world's largest seed company, Monsanto, says it will challenge a ruling by a federal judge that allows California officials to require a cancer warning on its weedkiller Roundup, said The Associated Press. If carried out, it would be the first such state-level warning on the herbicide, made with glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world.

The EPA failed to consult with the Interior Department over the risk to endangered species before approving use of the Monsanto weedkiller dicamba on GE cotton and soybeans, say four farm and environmental groups in a federal lawsuit. The groups want the U.S. appellate court in San Francisco to order the EPA to consider again if the herbicide merits approval.

The wine industry contributes an estimated $2 billion to the Texas state economy, but winegrowers say their livelihood is under threat by weedkillers intended for use on genetically engineered cotton. They are not placated by EPA assurances that new herbicides use formulations that are less prone to drift onto neighboring land in the No. 1 cotton state, or that spray rigs will use anti-drift nozzles, says the Texas Tribune.

After a four-day meeting, members of a Scientific Advisory Panel were divided over the EPA's conclusion, issued in a September 2016 white paper, that glyphosate, the world's most widely used herbicide, is "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans," Agri-Pulse reported.

The largest peach grower in Missouri — Bader Farms — claims Monsanto is responsible for the illegal use of herbicide that damaged its trees over the past two years, said the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The lawsuit says 37,000 trees were harmed because of herbicide drift from a field where farmers used unauthorized versions of dicamba on crops, which were genetically engineered by Monsanto to tolerate the weedkiller.

President-elect Donald Trump attacked over-regulation by the government during his campaign, so "big questions have arisen over how far he'll go," said Civil Eats, which spoke to food-policy activists about the outlook. With Republicans in control of Congress, the budgets of the EPA and the FDA could come under attack, but it would be very difficult to eliminate an agency like EPA, said food-safety advocates.

The EPA says its reconfigured scientific panel, with four new members, will meet Dec. 13-16 to consider whether glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, poses a carcinogenic risk, said Agri-Pulse. The U.S. examination, which is being made under a law that require periodic assessments of pesticides, will be closely watched because of the 2015 conclusion by the WHO cancer agency that glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans."

The EPA approved a low-drift formulation by Monsanto of the weedkiller dicamba for use on GE soybeans and cotton during the growing season. Farmers reported dicamba damage to 42,000 acres of crops this year due to use of unapproved, higher-volatility versions of the herbicide on neighboring farms.

The FDA found trace amounts of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, "in a variety of oat products, including plain and flavored oat cereals for babies," says a blog post by Carey Gillam of U.S. Right to Know. It appeared a day after European officials said they would release data from their assessment that glyphosate is "unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans" and two days after a Monsanto-commissioned study said the herbicide was not a threat.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, which ignited a global debate by rating glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans, has advised experts not to release documents requested under U.S. public records laws, said Reuters. In a letter and an email, IARC says it is "the sole owner of such materials" and "IARC requests you and your institute not to release any (such) documents," reports the news agency.

Bayer Group, a pharmaceutical and consumer health goods giant and one of the world’s largest seed and ag chemical companies, said on Tuesday that its sales had fallen by 3.1 billion euros in 2023, with lower herbicide prices as a factor. Sales by the crop sciences division, which accounts for half of Bayer’s revenue, were down by 1.9 billion euros, or 3.7 percent.