Hasta La Vista, Glyphosate?

Over the past few years, many countries around the globe have openly declared their intent to gradually phase out glyphosate use within their borders. Much of this opposition stems from the infamous International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report which labeled the popular herbicide as a “probable carcinogenic” that was originally published back in 2015.

Since then, countries such as Vietnam, Austria, and Germany have announced plans to immediately or gradually phase out glyphosate use. In the U.S., hundreds of thousands of lawsuits have been filed against glyphosate manufacturer Bayer alleging that use of the herbicide has led to cancer in the plaintiffs. (Most of these are now in the process of being settled out of court, however.)

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Now, it seems, you can add America’s immediate southern neighbor, Mexico, to the list. On August 12, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that his country would gradually phase out use of  glyphosate by the time the current administration ends in late 2024. According to reports, this move follows an ongoing ministerial disagreement over the herbicide should be treated in country.

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While acknowledging the differences between his agriculture and environment ministries over the use of the herbicide, Lopez Obrador nonetheless said his government would immediately stop using glyphosate on its own projects. The agriculture ministry said that private food producers will have until 2024 to phase out glyphosate.

“We couldn’t get rid of it in one fell swoop,” said Lopez Obrador in a press briefing. “It can’t be done. It would hit food output.”

According to Lopez Obrador, his government will advocate for food producers in Mexico to find some viable alternative herbicides to use on their crop fields instead of glyphosate. However, he also noted that some other countries have already tried to find alternatives to glyphosate and thus far failed to do so.

And the drumbeats against glyphosate use around the globe continue . . .

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