This is big news. Bayer, following its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto, will pay up to $10.9 billion to settle nearly 100,000 individual lawsuits alleging that exposure to the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup causes cancer.

Earlier this month, the Government of India proposed to phase out 27 pesticides that have already been banned in one or more other countries.

The so-called “transparency in science” rule, first proposed by former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in 2018, is basically intended to limit EPA’s use of scientific studies. 

For years now, pesticide industry giants have been peddling their genetically engineered (GE) technology kits: modified seeds and the herbicides that go with them. Clear evidence shows this system is dangerous, brittle and failing, yet these corporations are now doubling down.

For years, we’ve seen how the pesticide industry works the system to keep their products on the market. But under this administration? It’s beyond the pale.

Isoxaflutole, manufactured by the German agrichemical giant BASF, combines the worst of glyphosate and dicamba — it’s a weedkiller EPA itself has determined is likely to cause cancer and drift hundreds of feet from where it is applied.