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Dan Blaustein-Rejto is the director of food and agriculture at the Breakthrough Institute. For decades, farmers have relied on glyphosate — the active ingredient in Roundup and the most widely used herbicide in the United States — to protect their crops. But despite evidence that the herbicide is safer than alternatives, a lawsuit cheered on by the Make America Healthy Again movement could curtail access to it. If successful, the effort would leave farmers and the environment worse off.On Monday, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in Monsanto Company v. Durnell. John Durnell, a Missouri man who...

Turning Point USA CEO and chair Erika Kirk helped organize the White House listening session this month that put disgruntled Make America Healthy Again advocates in the same room with President Donald Trump, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and their leading advisers, according to two people inside the Trump administration and two people familiar with the meeting, granted anonymity to discuss the details. It’s one of the first and most prominent examples of Kirk helping the Trump administration keep its coalition together ahead of what is expected to be a difficult midterm election cycle. Some of Kirk' supporters see...

President Trump recently signed an Executive Order that expands U.S. production of glyphosate, a herbicide contained in commercial and domestic weed killers, such as Roundup. Glyphosate has been rigorously tested in more than 2,000 studies, including the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s large Agricultural Health Study, and has been used by farmers and home gardeners for more than 50 years. Yet some environmental advocates and other groups contend it causes cancer, specifically non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. This outcry stems primarily from a 2015 hazard assessment by the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC), a semi-autonomous agency of the World Health Organization, which...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California became the first state Thursday to ban weeding by hand on most farms, saying the work is too backbreaking for laborers. Under a rule approved by the California Occupational Safety and Health Division, farmworkers, in most cases, will not have to stoop to pull weeds, but will instead be given long-handled tools that will allow them to work without bending over. The rule takes effect within two weeks. The regulation aims to prevent the “real and substantial risk of back injury” caused by stooping to weed or thin plants by hand, Cal-OSHA said. The workplace-safety agency...

In 2000, a landmark study claimed to set the record straight on glyphosate, a contentious weedkiller used on hundreds of millions of acres of farmland. The paper found that the chemical, the active ingredient in Roundup, wasn’t a human health risk despite evidence of a cancer link. Last month, the study was retracted by the scientific journal that published it a quarter century ago, setting off a crisis of confidence in the science behind a weedkiller that has become the backbone of American food production. - snip - The 2000 paper, a scientific review conducted by three independent scientists, was...

A comprehensive carcinogenicity study on the world's most used herbicide, glyphosate, involving scientists from Europe and the U.S., has found that low doses of the controversial weed killer cause multiple types of cancer in rats. In this long-term study, glyphosate alone and two commercial glyphosate-based formulations, Roundup BioFlow used in the EU and Ranger Pro used in the U.S., were administered to rats via drinking water beginning in prenatal life, at doses of 0.5, 5, and 50 mg/kg body weight/day for 2 years. These doses are currently considered safe by regulatory agencies and correspond to the EU Acceptable Daily Intake...

Berlin (AFP) – German chemicals giant Bayer said Friday it could be forced to pull its Roundup weedkiller from the market if it is not able to limit simmering legal troubles. "We're nearing a point where the litigation industry could force us to even stop selling this vital product," CEO Bill Anderson said at Bayer's annual general meeting. Bayer has been dogged by lawsuits linked to Roundup since it acquired the US manufacturer Monsanto in a blockbuster deal in 2018. Claimants have alleged that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, causes blood cancers but Bayer says scientific studies and regulatory...

President Trump ramped up his mass deportation crackdown on Saturday as he focused ICE's efforts on Los Angeles. Illegal migrants in the sanctuary city were reportedly rounded up in a sweep of early morning raids, a day after Trump visited the area to survey wildfire devastation. Arrested migrants were held at ICE detention centers in California, which were expected to fill up so quickly due to Trump's raids that federal agents have been scouting for more detention spaces, the New York Post reported. Sources told the outlet that ICE agents avoided areas of the city that have been destroyed by...

A Missouri woman accused of spiking her husband’s Mountain Dew with Roundup weed killer and insecticide repeatedly to be “mean” to him has been charged with multiple felonies, authorities said. Michelle Y. Peters, 47, of Lebanon, is accused of secretly putting Roundup in the 2-liter bottles of Mountain Dew her husband stored in a garage refrigerator during May and June. On Sunday, she also allegedly laced the beverage with insecticide, according to the Laclede County Sheriff’s Office and a redacted probable cause statement of facts filed this week by the sheriff’s office. Peters was arrested Monday and is formally charged...

The first “illegal migrants” to be deported under the UK government’s Rwanda Scheme have been detained by officials this week in advance of their flights, but thousands have already slipped through the net or gone missing. The Home Office announced Wednesday the first “illegal migrants” were taken into custody “following a series of nationwide operations this week” by “operational teams”. The government said more such detentions prior to deportation are due to take place “in the coming weeks”. UK Finally Passes Rwanda Migrant Removal Bill, But No Guarantee Illegal Migrants Will Actually Be Removedhttps://t.co/xK98ZrXCnD — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 23,...

John McKivison, 49, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma “after using Roundup on his property for 20 years,” his attorneys said. Bayer plans to appeal the verdict.A Pennsylvania man who said his cancer was caused by Bayer's Roundup weed killer was awarded a $2.25 billion verdict by a Philadelphia jury. John McKivison, 49, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma "after using Roundup on his property for 20 years," his attorneys Tom Kline and Jason Itkin said in a joint statement. He sued the Monsanto Company, which is owned by Bayer, in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. On Friday, the jury handed...

Advocates are skeptical of a new $2 million effort to find solutions to the ever-growing population of wild horses on Nevada’s ranges and elsewhere. But a Friday vote in Washington, D.C., is a step forward in bringing $11 million to help solve the problem. A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) news release on Wednesday announced up to $2 million available for a variety of studies or research efforts. “Fifteen years ago I might have applauded all the grants BLM seems to have money for each year. But after 15 years of watching BLM say they have no money for management...

TUESDAY, July 12, 2022 (HealthDay News) – More than 80% of Americans have a widely used herbicide lurking in their urine, a new government study suggests. The chemical, known as glyphosate, is “probably carcinogenic to humans,” the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has said. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, a well-known weed killer. The U.S. National Nutrition Examination Survey found the herbicide in 1,885 of 2,310 urine samples that were representative of the U.S. population. Nearly a third of the samples came from children ages 6 to 18. “Glyphosate is the most widely used...

I’ll bet that in some corner of your toolshed or garage, an old hoe is leaning against a wall. A hoe that hasn’t seen use in a long, long time, having been replaced by, perhaps, a gasoline- or electric-powered tiller, chemical weed killers, or mulches. Hoeing is not much in vogue these days, perhaps because it seems to require what Charles Dudley Warner, in his 19th century classic “My Summer in the Garden,” said every gardener should have: “an iron back with a hinge in it.” But hoeing is, believe it or not, an easy, safe way to control weeds....

Hey. I’m always here to offer advice to the Left, to make their road smoother, to point them in the direction of fellow travelers they should cancel for deficiencies of “wokeness.” Let’s start with the issue of GMOs, poisonous Roundup, and Monsanto (now swallowed up by Bayer). Joe Biden is going to appoint Mr. Monsanto, Tom Vilsack, as his Secretary of Agriculture. Tommy boy held that post under Obama. The Organic Consumers Association writes [1] (see also [2], [3], [4]): “If, like us, you dream of an organic, regenerative food system led by independent family farmers, then news that Joe...

ROUND LAKE — A Malta town board member is calling for the resignation of a zoning board member after photos showing her in the midst of the U.S. Capitol siege have been circulating online. Malta Town Board member Timothy Dunn, a Republican, told the Times Union he spoke with the town's GOP chairman after photos were shared on social media sites by Saratoga County Democrats over the weekend. One image shows a woman being led off the Capitol grounds by police with her hands behind her back. A GOP official in Saratoga County confirmed the pictures are of Sharon Pineo...

A federal judge cast doubt on Bayer AG ’s proposal to neatly resolve all future lawsuits over the safety of its Roundup weedkiller, potentially snagging the German company’s attempts to move past the massive liability. Bayer said recently it would pay up to $10.9 billion to settle tens of thousands of current Roundup cases and create a system for handling future cases. The deal came after three juries in recent years awarded large verdicts to plaintiffs alleging Roundup caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma, spooking investors. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, who must approve the class action, said Monday he...

Surely, Timothy Litzenburg is a wealthy man. As one of the lead plaintiffs' attorneys suing Monsanto over the alleged (but factually incorrect) claim that its product Roundup (glyphosate) causes cancer, he likely has had several nice paydays in recent years as the company has been slammed with one jackpot verdict after another. Lawsuits have cost its parent company, Bayer, billions of dollars. The trouble with money, however, is that no matter how much you have, you never really have enough. You always want more. Litzenburg wanted more, too, and he knew just how to do it. After seeing how easy...

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a finding that could – and certainly should – undermine some of the most outrageous lawsuits and jury awards in American history. Bolstered by San Francisco area juries that have given multi-multi-million-dollar awards to clients who claim glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller) caused their cancer, jackpot justice lawyers have recruited some 20,000 additional “corporate victims” who hope to reap their own fortunes.Their cases are based on the assertion that: (a) Bayer-Monsanto negligently or deliberately failed to warn consumers that the glyphosate it manufactures is carcinogenic; (b) the plaintiffs used Roundup...

As part of a crackdown pushed by President Trump, immigration authorities are slated to carry out a series of roundups targeting undocumented families on Sunday, according to two administration officials. The raids — which the president first telegraphed last month only to postpone them — have left undocumented immigrants on edge, fearing they will be deported and separated from their families. As top Democrats urge Mr. Trump to scrap the operation, immigrant advocacy groups have been preparing immigrants who could potentially be targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Who will be targeted and why? Although the president and other...