Follow the money: Monsanto-influenced lawmakers side with chemical industry, question IARCs findings on glyphosate, threaten to cut funding to the WHO

The strong political influence of the chemical industry was illustrated perfectly in a recent House Science Committee hearing in which Republican lawmakers questioned the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)’s classification of glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. Taking it one step further, they even threatened to cut off funding for the IARC, which is part of the World Health Organization.

When the IARC gave glyphosate this classification in 2015, they immediately found themselves in the crosshairs of industry groups and the lawmakers whose pockets are padded by them. Glyphosate is the key ingredient in the most widely used weed killer on the planet, Monsanto’s Roundup, which has been regularly sprayed on crops like corn, cotton, and soybeans since the 1970s as well as golf courses and lawns. Monsanto also sells seeds that have been genetically modified to withstand glyphosate spraying as the weeds around them die.