Glyphosate, a battle in state legislatures and federal courts (Part 1)

By Dusty Sonnenberg, CCA, Field Leader, a project of the Ohio Soybean Council and Soybean Check-off

“Trying to farm today without the ability to use glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup®) would be like trying to farm today without my tractor.” Those were the words of one farmer who recently explained to lawmakers why the safe use of agricultural chemicals is a vital tool in their farming operation for  combating weed pressure while protecting the environment.

Glyphosate was first created in the 1950s by a Swiss chemist at a pharmaceutical company. It was later developed into a herbicide in the 1970s by a chemist at Monsanto. The product was created to be a broad-spectrum herbicide to kill weeds and grasses. It is largely considered to be the most widely used herbicide in the world today.

In 2015, an international program of the World Health Organization (WHO) began to investigate glyphosate. “This is one of four programs that looks at different industries.… Continue reading