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A new investigation by Mother Jones identified California’s Top 100 reported Roundup users based on state pesticide-use records. The data, covering 2023—the most recent year available in the database—show that glyphosate is being used not only on food crops, but also in forests, landscaping, along highways, and on other public and private lands.
At the top of the list is The Wonderful Company, which reported using 328,000 pounds of glyphosate in 2023—about 68 percent more than the second-largest user. The company owns POM Wonderful, Wonderful Pistachios, and Wonderful Halos, among other brands, and grows almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, and tangerines.
Wonderful reported glyphosate use in Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Madera, Monterey, Riverside, Tulare, and Ventura counties.
But Wonderful is only part of the story.
The Top Glyphosate Users
Sierra Pacific Industries, a timber company, ranked second with 195,000 pounds of glyphosate reported across forests in 13 California counties. According to Mother Jones, the company uses glyphosate after logging and wildfires to help young conifers grow back, particularly the trees favored by the timber industry.
Eynon Management, Inc. ranked third, reporting 158,000 pounds for landscape maintenance and rights-of-way, including roads and utilities, across 10 counties.
Two other users rounded out the top five: J.G. Boswell, with 153,000 pounds reported for cotton, pistachios, rights-of-way, and soil/seedbed applications, and Caltrans, which reported 153,000 pounds for rights-of-way across all but six California counties.
The numbers illustrate the sheer scale and diversity of glyphosate use. The chemical isn't confined to farms growing food. It is being applied in orchards, forests, landscaping operations, and along roads and other rights-of-way.
Glyphosate Is Showing Up in Waterways
The issue extends beyond where the herbicide is sprayed.
According to the Mother Jones investigation, state inspectors found glyphosate in 100 percent of the waterways tested in California’s Central Valley. The Central Valley is one of the country's most productive agricultural regions and supplies a substantial share of America's fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
Glyphosate is designed to kill plants, which is why its widespread use raises concerns about what happens when it moves beyond its intended application sites. EPA has identified ecological risks associated with glyphosate, particularly to non-target plants through spray drift, and its ongoing review includes potential effects on listed species and critical habitat.
EPA's own records show that glyphosate is registered for use on agricultural crops, forests, rights-of-way, parks, recreational areas, wildlife-management areas, and residential settings.
The Science Is Still Being Reviewed
The question of glyphosate's health effects remains an active area of scientific and regulatory review.
EPA's previous human-health assessment, published in 2017, concluded that glyphosate was not likely to be carcinogenic to humans and found no human-health risks of concern from registered uses when used according to the label. At the same time, EPA is now updating its human-health risk assessment to incorporate more recent research.
On September 22, 2026, HHS and EPA announced a new scientific partnership to expand research and scientific coordination around glyphosate. The agencies will examine areas including occupational exposure, human biomonitoring, dietary exposure, toxicology of glyphosate formulations and surfactants, and reproductive and developmental evidence. EPA said its updated human-health risk assessment will evaluate relevant peer-reviewed research published since its previous assessment.
EPA's updated assessment is expected to address dietary exposure, including exposure associated with preharvest applications, occupational exposure, and potential cancer, genotoxicity, reproductive, and developmental effects.
The reproductive-health component of the review is particularly significant given the existing research on glyphosate exposure and pregnancy, fertility, and other reproductive outcomes. Moms Across America examines this research in RIGHT TO REPRODUCE: America’s Fertility Crisis -- What Is Happening to Our Reproductive Health?
Reproductive and developmental effects are now explicitly part of EPA's updated review, making this an area to watch as the federal assessment moves forward.
Why This Matters
For families, the question isn't simply whether glyphosate is sprayed on a particular crop. It is how extensively the chemical is being used across the environment and what happens after it leaves the point of application.
The California data show that more than 987,000 pounds of glyphosate were reported by just the five largest users in 2023, across food-producing regions, forests, roads, and other landscapes.
And California isn't an isolated case. Glyphosate is registered for use throughout the United States, across agricultural and non-agricultural settings.
Families who want to reduce their exposure have options. Moms Across America’s10 Alternatives to Roundup guide features approaches including organic herbicides, mulch and permaculture, cover crops, steam, electric weed control, fatty-acid herbicidal soaps, vinegar, and other methods.
The goal isn't simply to identify a problem. It is to show that communities, farmers, landscapers, and property managers can consider different ways to control weeds without relying on glyphosate.
What Can I Do?
Volunteer with Moms Across America and Get Active! Search Mother Jones’ database to learn where glyphosate is being used in your community. Ask your schools, parks departments, municipalities, landscapers, and local officials what weed-control products they use and whether safer alternatives are available.
Share our 10 Alternatives to Roundup guide with your community—and join the more than 100,000 people who have already downloaded it.
Glyphosate use is widespread. The choices we make about how we grow food and control weeds matter.
Donate to Moms Across America so we can keep uncovering the science, exposing corruption, testing the foods that families eat every day, and sharing this information with the public.
Sources:
Mother Jones, We’ve Identified California’s Top 100 Roundup Users. Some May Surprise You., September 2026.
California Department of Pesticide Regulation, 2026 Central Valley Study: 310 Monitoring Report, 2024.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Glyphosate, updated Aug. 26, 2026.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Releases Glyphosate Human Health Open Literature Search Document for Public Feedback, Aug. 25, 2026.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HHS and EPA Announce New Scientific Partnership to Strengthen Glyphosate Review, Sept. 22, 2026.
Moms Across America, 10 Alternatives to Roundup Weed Killer.
Moms Across America, RIGHT TO REPRODUCE: America’s Fertility Crisis -- What Is Happening to Our Reproductive Health?, Sept. 3, 2026.