The following is a statement from Amy van Saun, senior attorney at CFS and lead counsel in the case:

In its June 2022 decision, a monumental victory for farmworkers and the environment, the Court held significant parts of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ’s glyphosate “interim” registration decision unlawful, including striking down its cancer safety determination for farmworkers and others exposed and ordering EPA to comply with the Endangered Species Act before approving glyphosate. The Court sent the current process back to the agency and ordered EPA to complete its work and make a new decision by an October 1, 2022 deadline.

(The decision was misnamed “interim” even though it finalized major parts of EPA’s glyphosate decision, including its cancer safety determination and ecotoxicity assessments.)

Instead, EPA today told the Court that, rather than complying with the Court’s directive, it was simply taking its ball and going home: EPA scrapped the entire glyphosate registration it had previously approved, adding the rest to the parts the Court had already held unlawful and set aside. EPA said it was instead going to focus only on another future glyphosate decision and loop all these outstanding questions—with regards to cancer, harm to endangered species and the environment more broadly, glyphosate drift harm to other farmer’s crops, and more—into that decision, which EPA “anticipates” will be completed in 2026.

On the one hand, today is another major victory: EPA has now conceded defeat for all of the broken interim registration. On the other hand, today’s announcement is also an irresponsible cop-out to try and get around the Court’s deadline to fix its legal violations. And in the meantime, EPA is letting glyphosate be sold and sprayed, despite outstanding significant questions about its health and environmental safety. Instead, EPA should cancel glyphosate products until and unless it reassesses their risks and ensures their safety lawfully. It cannot: Due to cancer concerns, Monsanto/Bayer has already agreed to stop selling Roundup for consumers by 2023. EPA should now cancel its other uses as well.

“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. 

You may feel it is hopeless to continue to speak up to get glyphosate or other toxins out of our food and environment, but we assure you it is not. Actions by citizens like you have been the foundation of these lawsuits. 

This announcement does not mean any actions that we, or you, have taken have been a failure.

The only failure would be if we stopped.

Our commitment to health and freedom is not altered by any circumstance, any corruption in the world.

Our love for our children, family, and community never ends.

We must keep our eye on the future we are all creating - one of healthy, thriving communities, continue to take action, and have faith that justice will prevail.

Thank you for being our health partners.

DO NOT GIVE UP.

BE UNSTOPPABLE.

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