Pesticide Review a Mouthpiece for Industry? European Parliament Exposes German Glyphosate Review as Direct Copy of Monsanto Report

Carcinogenic or not? Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, the world's most widely used herbicide, has sparked a scientific war. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified it in 2015 as Group 2A, "probably carcinogenic to humans"; but the European Food Safety Authority and the US Environmental Protection Agency subsequently struck a contrary note, saying it is "unlikely to be carcinogenic." With review agencies each insisting on their own version, the public is left even more confused.

A cross-party commissioned report by the European Parliament unravels the mystery: Europe's pesticide review agencies appear independent, but are in fact mouthpieces for the agrochemical giants, extensively copying and pasting material provided by Monsanto and other agrochemical giants, and thus reaching conclusions completely at odds with those of the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Under pressure from Monsanto, the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) glyphosate risk assessment report, sealed for four years, was also recently made public, exposing the carcinogenic risk of the main ingredient in the world's most widely used herbicide.

As the EU and the US, regarded as world benchmarks, are successively revealed to have shortcomings in pesticide review and regulation, German Green Party Member of the European Parliament (Maria Heubuch) Heubuch told a reporter from News&Market that developing countries have even more fragile systems and face even greater risks from pesticides.