Roundup Herbicide to be Banned at French Garden Centers

On Sunday, the French government said that it will ban the sale of Roundup, made by Monsanto, at garden centers around the country. The United Nations’ (UN) World Health Organization (WHO) has identified glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

“France must be on the offensive with regards to the banning of pesticides,” French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal said on French television, according to Newsweek. “I have asked garden centers to stop putting Monsanto’s Roundup on sale” in self-service aisles, she said.

In March, WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic.” Robert Fraley, chief technology officer for Monsanto, said in a statement viewed by Newsweek that “this result was reached by selective ‘cherry picking’ of data and is a clear example of agenda-driven bias.”

Ecologist Patrick Moore, Ph.D., a controversial defender of genetically modified crops, said he would drink Roundup on French television to prove its safety. Video of the exchange went viral when Moore refused to drink a glass of the herbicide offered to him by a TV host, Newsweek reported.

Roundup was the top herbicide choice for New York City parks in 2012, and is beloved by farmers because “Roundup Ready” versions of crops like corn and soybeans are modified to tolerate the weedkiller, allowing farmers to spray Roundup on their fields without damaging crops, according to Newsweek.

First introduced in the 1970s under the brand name Roundup, glyphosate is the most-produced and most widely used herbicide in the world. An IARC evaluation of glyphosate found “limited evidence” of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer, as seen in studies in the United States, Sweden and Canada conducted among farm workers since 2001, The Independent reported. Monsanto defended its product by saying that “relevant, scientific data was excluded from review.”

In a statement viewed by The Independent, Monsanto said: “As consumers ourselves, safety is a priority for every person who works at Monsanto.

“We want to be clear: All labeled uses of glyphosate are safe for human health and supported by one of the most extensive worldwide human health databases ever compiled on an agricultural product.

“In fact, every glyphosate-based herbicide on the market meets the rigorous standards set by regulatory and health authorities to protect human health.”

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