According to a report by the US agriculture industry news website, Agweb.com, the EPA has stepped back from its attempt to ban glyphosate, the active ingredient in Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller. This decision followed the finding by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in June of flaws in the analysis suggesting that glyphosate can cause cancer in human beings.
The EPA has not withdrawn its assessment that glyphosate is carcinogenic, but says that it will "revisit and better explain" its position. Doing this - 'completing its registration review' will apparently take until 2026.
This does not, however, mean that Roundup salesmen are necessarily going to have an easy time. California-based documentary director, Brian Lilla has produced a film called Children of the Vine in which he interviews farmers who claim to have got cancer after using glyphosate and reveals what he says are dangerous residues of the chemical in rivers and drinking water.
Lilla, whose previous work, Patagonia Rising helped stop the building of five hydroelectric dams in Chile is hoping to get Netflix to stream Children of the Vine, and that this will have a similar impact on sales of Roundup.
