Compiled 5 January, updated 10 January 2026
This concerns us because this product is found in many edible products and also in our groundwater (“Toxic to aquatic organisms with long-lasting effects” and the warning “Do not contaminate water with this product”, the active ingredient and its metabolite AMPA are present in 42% and 68% of surface water respectively, as well as – together – in 20.4% of deep groundwater; these are, among other things, the substances most frequently found at concentrations above environmental limits) .
Its presence is a source of controversy especially with regard to its presence in pasta, read about it : Boom in Canadian wheat imports. Alarm over glyphosate triggered?
A 2000 study concluding the safety of the well-known herbicide, widely cited since then, has just been officially refuted by the journal that published it. The scientists who signed the study are suspected of having endorsed a text prepared by Monsanto executives..
In 2017, in part of its investigation into the ‘Monsanto Papers’, Le Monde reported that Monsanto executives exchanged emails in 2015 on how to produce new summaries intended to prove the safety of glyphosate in the scientific literature. The aim was to convince regulatory agencies..
According to a count by Le Monde, it is cited about forty times in the 2015 European expert report that led to the reauthorisation of the herbicide in 2017.
Source: Le Monde
Glyphosate was then reauthorised by the EU in 2023.
Roundup – which contains glyphosate – is a herbicide is quietly found on the shelves of Walmart
..In the emails , Monsanto employees praised each other for their “hard work” on the paper, which included collecting, writing and reviewing data.
One Monsanto employee expressed hope that the study would become ‘the reference’ on the safety of Roundup and glyphosate’. Pharmaceutical giant Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion.
The Environmental Protection Agency (E.P. A.) still considers the herbicide safe. But the federal government in 2026 must review the safety of glyphosate after legal action by environmental, food safety and farmworker advocacy groups.
The EPA has also come under pressure to act on glyphosate from the Make America Healthy Again movement, led by supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who once served as co-counsel in a lawsuit against Monsanto over exposure to Roundup ..
Source : The New York Times.
Conclusion : Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide was classified as “possibly carcinogenic” and it is therefore desirable that the EU and E.P.A. review their position on glyphosate.
Bayer is one of the companies that spends the most on lobbying in Europe. On how Monsanto – now owned by Bayer – influences public decision-makers read more here.
