Monsanto

The European Commission will propose granting glyphosate — the world’s most common weedkiller and the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup — a 10-year renewal of its license. The commission had held off on making the proposal over controversy that the chemical was carcinogenic.

With a decision by the Maine Board of Pesticides Control, farmers in the state can now plant three varieties of genetically modified potatoes produced by J.R. Simplot Co., says the Bangor Daily News.

The world's largest seed company, Monsanto, said it terminated its November 2015 deal to sell Precision Planting to Deere and Co., the world's largest farm-equipment maker, and was looking for another purchaser. The Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against the sale to Deere, saying it would dominate the market for high-speed planters, which are expected to become the industry standard.

An Italian researcher says results of a study on animal health and the weedkiller glyphosate will be published in time for an EU decision on whether to allow continued use of the herbicide, says Reuters. Preliminary results show no initial adverse reaction in rats exposed to the herbicide in levels equal to that allowed in humans.

In testing an array of foods and beverages for the weedkiller glyponsate, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found excessive residue levels in 3.9 percent of the grain products sampled, says The Western Producer. The agency ran tests on 3,188 food samples, and while it detected traces of glyphosate in nearly 30 percent of them, only 1.3 percent of the samples overall exceeded the government limits.

A groundswell of Hindu nationalism has inspired resistance in India to foreign influence and large multinationals, such as Monsanto, says Reuters in describing corporate battle that has disrupted the country's seed industry. Monsanto has withdrawn its application to sell a new generation of GE cotton seed in India, which recently became the largest cotton grower in the world.

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 research restoration of habitat for sage grouse on 320 acres of its corporate ranch in Idaho, reports Capital Press. The work would mitigate the impact of a Caldwell Canyon phosphate mine that Monsanto intends to open.

Monsanto isn’t likely to get a green light to bring GMO corn seeds into Mexico anytime soon, says Reuters. Last week, the country upheld a 2013 Mexican court decision that banned even test plots of GMO corn in Mexico, because of concerns that the genetically modified varieties might contaminate native corn species through cross-pollination.

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.

As it promised last month, Bayer, the world's largest seed and agricultural chemicals company, asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to overturn the $25-million award to Edwin Hardeman, a California man who blamed Roundup herbicide for giving him cancer. The appeal is a key element in Bayer's plan to resolve billions of dollars of claims against Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world.