What is the Future of Glyphosate?
November 24, 2020 As of early November, the main plaintiff in the several thousands of lawsuits filed against glyphosate in U.S. courts, Bayer, is working towards a settlement agreement that would in theory wipe most of them off the legal ledgers. Once this agreement is reached, it is estimated that approximately 1,800 lawsuits would still be left to work through.
But more importantly for glyphosate, what impact will all this “courtroom drama” have on the herbicide’s future within the agricultural marketplace? This is a question CropLife attempted to find out during our 2020 CropLife 100 survey of the nation’s top ag retailers. And the answers were enlightening, to say the least.
First off, virtually no one thinks glyphosate will “disappear from agriculture” because of the settlement agreement being reach by Bayer. In fact, only 1% of respondents to the 2020 CropLife 100 survey agreed with the statement “glyphosate use will decline rapidly, driven by consumer sentiment and farmer preference.”
However, it was when the survey percentages were totaled for the remaining 99% of respondents that things got a bit more interesting. A slight majority, 54%, of the nation’s top ag retailers don’t foresee any long-term negative aftereffects for glyphosate within the agriculture industry because of the lawsuits being settled. “Glyphosate will remain an important tool for agriculture for years to come,” this group indicated on their survey forms.
Still, the remaining 45% of respondents do see some issues for glyphosate use moving into the 2021 growing season and beyond. This group of ag retailers agreed with the statement “glyphosate will remain in use but decline as other products gain market share.”
Loading ...At this point, whenever the endgame finally comes, it will be interesting to see how glyphosate’s future progresses in agriculture once the herbicide gets back to combating weeds in the field instead of litigants in the courtroom.
Subscribe Today For
