In a week that has seen Bayer Garden finally sold to French company SBM and Monsanto received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Bayer AG for a potential acquisition of Monsanto the EU stalled over renewing the licence for Glyphosate despite results of an exhaustive risk assessment that suggests glyphosate is unlikely to pose a risk of cancer through the human diet.

Gary Philpotts, Business Director, Roundup Consumer at Monsanto in the UK told GTN Xtra: "Roundup weed killer widely used in agriculture and by gardeners, is unlikely to cause cancer in people. This week experts from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) said glyphosate is "unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans".

"In an effort to clear up the confusion of the IARC statement in March 2015, the UN/WHO joint committee released this verdict:  Retailers should continue to sell Roundup with confidence and not allow this unwarranted activists vandalism in stores."

From the Monsanto website:

MONSANTO STATEMENT ON FURTHER DELAYS IN EU RENEWAL OF GLYPHOSATE

19/05/2016

Regulatory decisions must be made consistently, predictably and be based on the best available science

In response to further delay of a vote by European Union (EU) Member States on the renewal of glyphosate, Philip Miller, Ph.D., Monsanto’s vice president of global regulatory and governmental affairs, today issued the following statement:

The European Union’s risk assessment on glyphosate has been one of the most thorough evaluations of an agricultural product ever conducted.  The risk assessment conducted by the rapporteur member state, Germany, and reviewed by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) included more than 90,000 pages of data and 353 studies not previously reviewed by the EU.  The assessment considered the best available science and found no evidence of unreasonable risk.  In addition, earlier this week, the Joint WHO/FAO Meeting on Pesticide Residues again reaffirmed that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet.

Further delay in a vote by the EU Member States is not scientifically warranted and represents an unprecedented deviation from the EU’s legislative framework.  This delay undermines the credibility of the European regulatory process and threatens to put European farmers and the European agriculture and chemical industries at a competitive disadvantage.

Monsanto joins with farmer groups and other European glyphosate registrants in reinforcing the strong conclusions of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and EFSA.  On the basis of this scientific assessment, we urge a prompt and full renewal of glyphosate by the EU Member States.