Does glyphosate have antibiotic properties?

Expert response from Chelsey Robinson

Former Global Preparedness Content Manager, Monsanto Company

Tuesday, 25/11/2014 13:00

Glyphosate does inhibit an enzymatic pathway in many bacteria and parasites, and a reasonable case can be made that glyphosate might be effective as an antimicrobial. (Technically speaking, antimicrobial covers a broader range of compounds.) 

Glyphosate does have some minor antimicrobial properties. Perhaps this question comes from the recent claims among activists that glyphosate negatively impacts soil microbes. It’s important to note that while glyphosate has slight antimicrobial properties, this does not mean that it has a negative effect on soil microbes.

I would invite you to read more about glyphosate and anti-microbial properties in this post authored by my colleague John Vicini; here is an excerpt: 

“Regarding your question, it is true that glyphosate is a chelator and that it has some antimicrobial properties. However, it is important when looking at an effect of any compound to understand the whole story. For instance, red blood cells bind oxygen. That’s an indisputable fact. So to say that blood prevents muscle cells of the body from gaining access to oxygen would be obviously faulty logic and would be based on looking at only half of the story. To extend the analogy, oxygen is also a potent antimicrobial compound for many good anaerobic gut organisms. That doesn’t mean that small amounts of oxygen in the gut will kill all of the organisms in the gut. Obviously, just the label ‘antimicrobial’ is not very informative without more information.

“In the glyphosate example that you cite, it appears that there is also a jump in logic that looks at only half of the story. In 2012, Dr. Stephen Duke et al. wrote a comprehensive review of glyphosate in which they explained that there are many natural chelators in soil, and that these are beneficial for facilitating transport of minerals into plants. Moreover, to suggest that glyphosate as an antimicrobial preferentially affects good bacteria implies that all ‘good’ and ‘bad’ microbes can be defined by their metabolism, and there is no basis for this conclusion.”