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❝ EU regulators based a decision to relicense the controversial weedkiller glyphosate on an assessment plagiarised from industry reports, according to a report for the European parliament.
A crossparty group of MEPs commissioned an investigation into claims, revealed by the Guardian, that Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment…copy-and-pasted tracts from Monsanto studies…
❝ The authors said they found “clear evidence of BfR’s deliberate pretence of an independent assessment, whereas in reality the authority was only echoing the industry applicants’ assessment.”
Really pisses me off. I’ve read and referenced that report in the past – and accepted it as legitimate. Just another example of the lengths corporate profiteers will go in corrupt practices to make a buck.
Criminal!
Eideard 
“A broad new scientific analysis of the cancer-causing potential of glyphosate herbicides, the most widely used weed killing products in the world, has found that people with high exposures to the popular pesticides have a 41% increased risk of developing a type of cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma.” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/14/weed-killing-products-increase-cancer-risk-of-cancer “The evidence “supports a compelling link” between exposures to glyphosate-based herbicides and increased risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), the authors concluded, though they said the specific numerical risk estimates should be interpreted with caution. The findings by five US scientists contradict the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) assurances of safety over the weed killer and come as regulators in several countries consider limiting the use of glyphosate-based products in farming.”
See also “Exposure to Glyphosate-Based Herbicides and Risk for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: A Meta-Analysis and Supporting Evidence” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1383574218300887
Bayer plunges after jury finds its Roundup weedkiller caused cancer (Markets Insider 3/20/19) https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/bayer-plunges-after-jury-finds-its-roundup-weedkiller-caused-cancer-2019-3-1028044328 “Shares in Bayer plunged 12% in morning trading after a San Francisco jury found one of its customers developed cancer after using its Roundup weed killer in his yard. The decision strikes another blow to the German pharmaceuticals group. In August, a jury ordered its Monsanto unit to pay $289 million after determining it failed to warn customers of the potential cancer risks of two of its weedkillers, Roundup and Ranger Pro. The verdict was cut to $78.5 million on appeal. The jury will now decide whether to hold Monsanto liable, raising the prospect of another multi-million dollar verdict.
Bayer’s stock has slumped a third in the past year, wiping more than $20 billion off its market value. Headwinds remain, as the company faces lawsuits from more than 11,000 farmers, home gardeners, and landscapers. It’s set to appear in six more trials in federal and state courts this year.”
“Study on Weed Killers and Monarch Butterflies Spurs Ecological Flap : Some scientists question museum data analysis that suggests Roundup is not responsible for the insects’ decline” (Scientific American 3/21/19) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/study-on-weed-killers-and-monarch-butterflies-spurs-ecological-flap/ (see related stories in sidebar)
“…“We can’t get anywhere unless we know what’s driving” species loss, says University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum director* Karen Oberhauser, who founded the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project in 1996. “With monarchs we know what we’ve lost, [and] we know where we’ve lost it.” Empirically identifying the drivers of these losses gives ecologists the tools to propose policy measures and shape land-management decisionsUltimately, protecting biodiversity is in our own best interests, Oberhauser says. “The things that are making monarchs and other species go extinct are—in the long run—going to hurt us,” she says. “By doing what we can to change these conditions so that other species don’t go extinct, we’re helping ourselves.”
Safe Or Scary? The Shifting Reputation Of Glyphosate, AKA Roundup (NPR 5/30/19) https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/05/30/727914874/safe-or-scary-the-shifting-reputation-of-glyphosate-aka-roundup “…In 1996, Monsanto started selling genetically modified crops, or GMOs. They were modified so they could tolerate glyphosate. This meant that farmers could now spray this chemical right over their “Roundup Ready” soybeans, corn and cotton, and the crops would be fine but the weeds would all die.
It was a farming revolution built on glyphosate. Monsanto quickly became the world’s biggest seed company. And farmers started spraying a lot more Roundup. Sales of the chemical increased more than ten-fold.”
And then…
[The next glyphosate trial is set for August in St. Louis.]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded its regulatory review of glyphosate — the most widely used herbicide in the United States. After a review of what EPA officials term as best available science, as required under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, it has concluded that there are no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used according to the label and that it is not a carcinogen, said EPA officials in an EPA news release. https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/glyphosate
“In Win for Bayer-Monsanto, Trump EPA Claims Cancer-Causing Weedkiller ‘Safe’” https://www.ewg.org/release/win-bayer-monsanto-trump-epa-claims-cancer-causing-weedkiller-safe
Bayer BAYGN.DE is considering stopping sales of the weedkiller glyphosate to private users who apply it in their gardens, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Thursday, citing financial and corporate sources.
The business daily said the move was part of ongoing talks with tens of thousands of plaintiffs in the United States about an out-of-court settlement. The plaintiffs blame Bayer’s glyphosate-based weedkillers for their cancer.
Bayer was not immediately available for comment. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bayer-glyphosate-idUSKBN1ZT0ER
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) offered evidence of how U.S. officials and transnational pharmaceutical Bayer representatives pressured Mexico to change its policy regarding glyphosate. https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-and-Bayer-Pressured-Mexico-To-Change-Its-Pesticide-Policy-20210217-0003.html
The Monsanto Papers are a treasure trove of internal documents slowly released since March 2017 as part of a US lawsuit by cancer victims against Monsanto over its ubiquitous herbicide, glyphosate. They tell a lot about how Monsanto actively subverts science, both in the company’s practices and the way it abuses science’s moral authority to push for its interests. https://corporateeurope.org/en/food-and-agriculture/2018/03/what-monsanto-papers-tell-us-about-corporate-science
“The Monsanto Papers also showed the company had surveilled other writers or environmental “activists,” including singer Neil Young, whose 2015 album titled “The Monsanto Years” brought the attention and ire of the company.” https://twitter.com/dpmlawfirm/status/1359200255175233536
The use of weed killers can increase the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in soil, a new study from the University of York shows.
Herbicides are one of the most widely used chemicals in agriculture and while these compounds are used to target weeds, they can cause damage to soil microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, potentially changing the ecological properties of microbial communities.
Scientists from China and the UK studied the effect of three widely used herbicides called glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba on soil bacterial communities.
Using soil microcosms, researchers discovered that herbicides increased the relative abundance of bacterial species that carried antibiotic resistance genes. This was because mutations that improved growth in the presence of herbicides also increased bacterial tolerance to antibiotics. Herbicide exposure also led to more frequent movement of antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/uoy-cwk021221.php
“Herbicide selection promotes antibiotic resistance in soil microbiomes” is published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article/doi/10.1093/molbev/msab029/6133234?searchresult=1