Submit a public comment: TELL THE EPA - RESTRICT THE USE OF GLYPHOSATE

Scott Pruitt and the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are now accepting public comments on their proposed reapproval of the pesticide, glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. If the EPA reapproves glyphosate, it will enable chemical companies to sell this toxic pesticide for another 15 years. Now’s your chance to tell EPA to restrict the use of this hazardous weedkiller!

Best known as the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, glyphosate is the chemical cornerstone of GMO-based agriculture. In fact, over the past two decades, Monsanto’s ubiquitous Roundup-resistant GMOs have made glyphosate the most-used pesticide in the history of the world. And that’s bad news for all of us.

Public Health

• The world’s leading cancer authorities have classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen¹. Farmers who use glyphosate are particularly at risk of getting the immune system cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
• We are all encountering more glyphosate thanks to GMOs.  EPA estimates that our exposure to glyphosate residue in foods has quadrupled over the past 25 years, with 1-2 year olds far more highly exposed than adults.

Endangered Species

• Glyphosate poses an existential threat to monarch butterflies and their epic migration by wiping out their host plant, milkweed, from farm fields throughout the Midwest².
• Roundup is incredibly toxic to frogs, and is likely contributing to the worldwide decline in amphibians³.
• Glyphosate and its breakdown product are regularly found in surface waters, air, rainfall and soils throughout the U.S.

Agriculture

• Sprayed in large quantities on Roundup-resistant GMOs, glyphosate has become a leading culprit in drift-related injury to traditional crops not resistant to Roundup.
• Glyphosate released from the roots of GMOs can harm beneficial soil bacteria and promote the growth of soil fungi that cause plant disease.
• Overuse of glyphosate has also triggered an epidemic of glyphosate-resistant weeds, one of the greatest challenges for U.S. agriculture since the boil weevil.  The industry’s response to these “superweeds” is to introduce “next generation” GMO crops that can be sprayed with additional pesticides to kill the glyphosate-resistant weeds, causing unprecedented damage to neighbors’ crops and wild plants⁴, a lose-lose proposition for farmers and the environment.

Despite these significant health, environmental, and agricultural consequences, EPA is poised to reapprove glyphosate for the next 15 years!Tell Scott Pruitt and the EPA how important it is to NOT approve glyphosate without serious restrictions needed to address its many threats!

-The Center for Food Safety

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References:

1. https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/glyphosate-faq_64013.pdf  

2. https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/monarchs-in-peril-one-pager--copy_82788.pdf  

3. https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1434/ML14345A564.pdf

4. https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/blog/5063/how-monsanto-is-devastating-thousands-of-farms-across-20-states#showJoin