Glyphosate Is a ‘Probable Human Carcinogen.’ Why Is It Still Being Used? | The Tyee: Over the past two years, three U.S. juries have awarded multimillion-dollar verdicts to plaintiffs who asserted that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, gave them non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. Bayer, a German chemical company, bought
Roundup’s inventor, Monsanto, in 2018 and inherited some 125,000
pending lawsuits, of which it has settled all but about 30,000. The
company is now considering ending U.S. retail sales of Roundup to reduce
the risk of further lawsuits from residential users, who have been the main source of legal claims.

As scholars who study global trade, food systems and their effects on the environment, we see a bigger story: generic glyphosate is ubiquitous around the globe. Farmers use it on a majority of the world’s agricultural fields. Humans spray enough glyphosate to coat every acre of farmland in the world with half a pound of it every year.

Glyphosate is now showing up in humans, but scientists are still debating its health effects. One thing is clear, though: Because it’s an effective and very cheap weedkiller, it has become pervasive.  

Glyphosate Is a ‘Probable Human Carcinogen.’ Why Is It Still Being Used? | The Tyee: Over the past two years, three U.S. juries have awarded multimillion-dollar verdicts to plaintiffs who asserted that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, gave them non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. Bayer, a German chemical company, bought
Roundup’s inventor, Monsanto, in 2018 and inherited some 125,000
pending lawsuits, of which it has settled all but about 30,000. The
company is now considering ending U.S. retail sales of Roundup to reduce
the risk of further lawsuits from residential users, who have been the main source of legal claims.As scholars who study global trade, food systems and their effects on the environment, we see a bigger story: generic glyphosate is ubiquitous around the globe. Farmers use it on a majority of the world’s agricultural fields. Humans spray enough glyphosate to coat every acre of farmland in the world with half a pound of it every year.Glyphosate is now showing up in humans, but scientists are still debating its health effects. One thing is clear, though: Because it’s an effective and very cheap weedkiller, it has become pervasive.  Read More