2020: A Key Year for Glyphosate

As 2020 approaches, most folks doing business in the agricultural world are likely hoping for a less volatile year. Still, for one important herbicide, glyphosate, the upcoming year will probably remain volatile.

During the course of 2019, the number of lawsuits and bans against the glyphosate have expanded at a record clip. At last count, more than 45,000 lawsuits had been filed against the herbicide. Furthermore, dozens of countries and cities around the world have also started banning the use of glyphosate, including Vietnam, Austria, and Germany (in a few years’ time, however).

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Not surprisingly, given these circumstances, the future of glyphosate was a major topic of conversation at this year’s annual Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) meeting in New Orleans, LA, in early December. In fact, at our magazine’s annual State of the Industry Roundtable Discussion (attended by several key ag retail representatives), glyphosate’s future dominated the talk.

In addition, during the 2019 ARA general session, association CEO/President Daren Coppock also mentioned glyphosate as one of the key topics to watch during 2020. “What concerns me here is that in glyphosate, we have a product that been reviewed by most regulators and deemed safe, but because of one report against it, we could see it disappear,” warned Coppock, referring to the now infamous International Agency for Research on Cancer study that found glyphosate was a probable carcinogenic. “We have to make sure we win this fight, because otherwise, all of the tools we use to manage crop yields in the market will be next.”

At the moment, glyphosate’s owner, Bayer, is bearing the brunt of these lawsuits (and subsequent damage awards from juries). But many observers from ARA are convinced it is only a matter of time before other glyphosate manufacturers get drawn into this mix as well. Either way, watching to see how 2020 plays out on for glyphosate could be very interesting . . .

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