CFS files coalition lawsuit against EPA re-approval of glyphosate pesticide
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Posted: 23 March 2020 | Sam Mehmet (New Food) | No comments yet
The suing organisations are Center for Food Safety, Beyond Pesticides, the Rural Coalition, Organización en California de Lideres Campesinas and the Farmworker Association of Florida.


The Center for Food Safety (CFS), on behalf of a coalition of farmworkers, farmers, and conservationists, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its January 2020 re-approval of the pesticide glyphosate – the active ingredient in Monsantoās Roundup pesticides.
While EPA defends glyphosate, juries in several cases have found it to cause cancer, ruling in favour of those impacted by exposure. After a registration review process spanning over a decade, EPA allowed the continued marketing of the pesticide without fully assessing glyphosateās hormone-disrupting potential or its effects on threatened and endangered species, according to CFS.
āEPAās half-completed, biased, and unlawful approval sacrifices the health of farmworkers and endangered species at the altar of Monsanto profits,ā said George Kimbrell, Legal Director for CFS and counsel for the coalition. āThe reckoning for Roundup is coming.ā
While EPA has declared that glyphosate does not cause cancer, the worldās foremost cancer authorities with the World Health Organization reportedly declared glyphosate to be āprobably carcinogenic to humansā in 2015.
āContrary to the Trump EPAās claims, both regulatory and independent scientific studies demonstrate that glyphosate herbicides are carcinogenic and have adverse effects on internal organs,ā said Bill Freese, Science Policy Analyst at CFS. āFar from consulting the ābest available science,ā as EPA claims, the agency has relied almost entirely on Monsanto studies, cherry-picking the data that suits its purpose and dismissing the rest,” added Freese.
āThe farmworkers and farmers we serve are the backbone of our food system. Their families are the first ā but are not the last ā to bear the huge costs of EPAās irresponsible decision, while corporate shareholders of Monsanto-Bayer benefit,ā said Lorette Picciano, Executive Director of the Rural Coalition.
EPA has also failed to collect basic data on how much glyphosate is taken into human bodies via skin contact or inhalation of spray droplets, the CFS claimed. These exposure routes are said to be particularly significant for farmworkers and others who work around and/or use Roundup.
āFarmworkers are on the front lines of the pesticide exposure crisis providing vital food for American families,ā said Suguet Lopez of the Organización en California de Lideres Campesinas. āThey deserve a duty of care from the government which it has failed to provide.ā
Glyphosate herbicides are also said to threaten numerous species, including fish, amphibians, and aquatic as well as terrestrial plants. āEPA failed to consider if Roundup disrupts the balance of nature and ecosystem health, critical to the survival of a vast number of organisms on which life depends ā from beneficial insects, such as parasitoid wasps, lacewings, ladybugs, and endangered bumblebees, monarch butterflies, to fish, small mammals, and amphibians,ā said Jay Feldman, Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides.
Related topics
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Center for Food Safety (CFS), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
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Bill Freese, George Kimbrell, Jay Feldman, Lorette Picciano, Suguet Lopez