France puts glyphosate on notice

Last week, French Environment Minister Ségolène Royal and French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll announced that from January 2018, phytosanitary products - used to control plant diseases - would only be available to amateur gardeners "through an intermediary or a certified vendor".

"France must be offensive on stopping pesticides," Ms Royal said at the weekend.

"I have asked garden shops to stop over-the-counter sales of Monsanto's Roundup."

The move follows a report released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in March, which stated Roundup's main active ingredient, glyphosate, was branded "probably carcinogenic to humans".

A claim which Monsanto said was "inconsistent with decades of safety reviews by leading regulatory authorities across the world".

Website BusinessWire.com also reported Monsanto as saying many media outlets had been incorrectly reporting the announcement by Ms Royal.

"Contrary to widespread media coverage, Ms Royal did not propose a ban on the sale of Roundup to French consumers," the company's statement said.

"She proposed restricting it to behind-the-counter sales - a system that already exists in several other European countries, including Germany.

"Furthermore, she proposed this in the context of a law that would apply to all pesticides sold in the country, not just Roundup.

"Monsanto was surprised by Ms Royal's decision to single out Monsanto's Roundup-brand weed killer by name, since it is just one 180 different glyphosate-based weed killers sold to gardeners and farmers in France and other countries," it said.

"There is no new or recent scientific data that has given European regulators reason to question the current authorisation or sales conditions of Roundup in Europe.

"Monsanto and other producers of glyphosate-branded products continue to work with the competent regulatory authorities to ensure the decennial renewal for glyphosate in the European Union."