ARTICLE: Cutting Through the Clutter on Glyphosate

Jennifer Martin of Food Insight cuts though the clutter on glyphosate and hears what scientists have to say on the matter. Below is an excerpt of the article.

The news reports about the herbicide glyphosate in the last few months are enough to make you dizzy. The seemingly neverending back-and-forth of messages coming from a variety of sources can make it hard to decipher what information is factual and based on sound science.

Like many consumers, you might be wondering what glyphosate is and why we seem to be concerned about it. Glyphosate is an herbicide that is widely used by growers as it is the main ingredient in many commercial weedkillers. In March 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic," sparking wide debate about the safety of the herbicide to human health and its continued application by farmers across the world.

Let’s cut through the clutter and hear what scientists have to say on the matter.

In 2014, the German government, in a review conducted for the European Union, concluded no link to cancer had been established. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conducted a peer review of the German report and the IARC report, concluding in November 2015 that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in humans. This conclusion was subsequently challenged by a group of scientists who petitioned the European Health Commissioner to ignore EFSA’s report. Finally, this week EFSA stated that it stands by its original findings, citing differences in purpose behind Apple TreeIARC’s assessment and EFSA’s regulatory review.

Read the full Food Insight post here.