Bayer To Stop Selling Glyphosate Products In US, Including RoundUp

What Happened: Bayer announced last Thursday that they will stop selling Roundup for residential use in 2023 in the U.S. Home and Garden Market. This is certainly a victory for all humans as the product is highly toxic to people, the environment and our food supply.

As part of Bayer's motion to maintain shareholder confidence during an onslaught of lawsuits surrounding their RoundUp product, they released a statement revealing their five-point plan,

As part of the five-point plan, the company will also take additional steps to help close the door on this litigation and ensure that any claims brought by individuals who use Roundup™ in the future are few in number and unlikely to succeed. These measures include that the company and its partners will replace its glyphosate-based products in the U.S. residential Lawn & Garden market with new formulations that rely on alternative active ingredients beginning in 2023, subject to a timely review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state counterparts.

The company will still sell the product commercially and in other countries.

Why It's Important: A key reflection point is Bayer did not come to this decision due to a recognition that the product is toxic and harmful, but based on mitigating financial risk.

There have been over 30,000+ legal claims from customers who feel their use of Bayer's glyphosate products, including Roundup, led to their cancer development. Regardless, the multi-billion dollar chemical company feels "This move is being made exclusively to manage litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns.”

"Bayer's decision to end U.S. residential sale of Roundup is a historic victory for public health and the environment, as agricultural, large-scale use of this toxic pesticide continues, our farmworkers remain at risk. It's time for EPA to act and ban glyphosate for all uses."

Center for Food Safety executive director Andrew Kimbrell

As Kimbrell states, the banning of 'all' of these chemicals would benefit the land, people and animals, so why continue to approve it? Perhaps this is where the revolving door relationship between these massive companies and regulatory agencies comes into play.

Bayer's statement may not come as a surprise, why would a company admit their product is harming people while lawsuits are impending? But the question is, why do we want a society where this type of lie or omission is commonplace to protect profits?

The Takeaway: What do we make of a society that rewards profit over health? What is the real purpose of government in today's society: to help people live good lives and to steward progression and large decisions, or is it to protect corporate interests and the economy at all costs?

In my opinion, it feels as though we are a society so disconnected from our bodies and authentic selves, likely in part due to trauma brought on by our way of living, that we no longer know what it means to live a life where we can thrive. We instead don't recognize we are in a system that is designed for suffering. Perhaps it's this realization, along with a reconnection to our body and authentic self, that is required to start opening up to the idea that a wholesale change of our way of life is necessary to create a better world.