Monsanto’s herbicide glyphosate is once again in the spotlight. Cancer experts will be reviewing the science on glyphosate for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were originally scheduled to meet from October 18-21. The meeting just got postponed until later in 2016. This week, PAN International released a review of the current science on the herbicide’s health and environmental effects.
And glyphosate will be a key item on the agenda of this weekend’s Monsanto tribunal, an event in The Hague convened by non-governmental organizations to put the mega-corporation on trial for human rights abuses.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s ubiquitous pesticide formulation RoundUp, is increasingly controversial due to its widespread use and growing questions over human health risks. The World Health Organization’s specialized cancer group known as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed scientific evidence in 2014 and determined that glyphosate was a “probable carcinogen.”