But the fight goes on to end the use of toxic chemicals.
John,
After relentless pressure from Food & Water Watch and our allies across the country, last week Bayer (one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and owner of Monsanto) announced it would stop selling home-use products containing glyphosate in 2023. This includes the dangerous and deadly Roundup herbicide.
Bayer plans to replace glyphosate with a different active ingredient as a means of “managing litigation risk” — in other words, the tens of thousands of lawsuits brought by victims linking their cancer to Roundup use.
Food & Water Watch has been fighting to end the use of glyphosate for years. While it’s an important win to see Bayer removing glyphosate products from lawn and garden centers, it’s not a complete victory.
Non-farm application is just a small portion of total glyphosate usage. The toxic chemical will continue to be sprayed on cropland, where it poisons our soils, harms pollinators and their habitat, and pollutes our waterways. We won’t stop fighting until we have a complete national ban on glyphosate.
In 2015, the World Health Organization said that glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Independent studies showed the harmful effects of Roundup, including links to cancer, reproductive issues, birth defects, antibiotic resistance, and harm to our environment, wildlife and pollinators.
Although Monsanto has long claimed that glyphosate is safe, unsealed court documents, emails and memos reveal a coordinated strategy to manipulate the debate about the safety of glyphosate. This doesn't inspire confidence about the safety of future chemicals that will replace glyphosate in Roundup, so we'll need to stay vigilant.
We want to live in a world where no community is exposed to unsafe toxic chemicals, especially when they’re known to cause cancer. But studies have shown that glyphosate is all around us — in our food, air and water. So the only way to stop this threat is to get rid of it entirely — and keep toxic replacements off the market as well.
Wenonah Hauter
Founder and Executive Director
Food & Water Watch
Food & Water Watch and its affiliated organization, Food & Water Action, are advocacy groups with a common mission to protect our food, water and climate. This email was sent to [email protected] - and we're glad you got it, because it's one of the most important ways you can reclaim political power, hold elected officials accountable and resist corporate control.
