Abstract
So where, one might ask, are the regulators? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has top authority over glyphosate, just as it does for other chemicals, but the agency has repeatedly discounted concerns about the chemical’s impact on people and the environment, relying on a helping hand from industry to guide its actions. We’ve seen the cozy relationship between Monsanto Company and regulators play out over and over. We saw it in the 1980s, when EPA officials reversed the findings of agency scientists who considered glyphosate to be a possible human carcinogen; when the EPA followed Monsanto’s lead in ignoring concerns about weed resistance until it was too late; when the EPA raised the legal tolerance levels for the amount of glyphosate that could be in our food even as cancer concerns were growing; and again in 2016, when the EPA rearranged its Scientific Advisory Panel on glyphosate at industry demand. And, of course, Monsanto’s connections to, and appearance of assistance from, the EPA’s top cancer assessment official, Jess Rowland, speak volumes about the strength of corporate influence within the agency.
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Notes
- 1.
Ted Lieu, “Rep. Lieu Statement on New Glyphosate Safety Concerns,” press release, March 15, 2017, https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-lieu-statement-new-glyphosate-safety-concerns.
- 2.
Frank Pallone Jr. et al., letter to Greg Walden (chairman, U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce), April 3, 2017, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-pJR4cGo9ckdmJLdTJuN2pYTmM/view.
- 3.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Inspector General, memorandum from Jeffrey Harris to Jim Jones, March 25, 2016, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-03/documents/newstarts_03-25-16_herbicidetolerancemanagement.pdf.
- 4.
Lyndsey Layton, “New FDA Deputy to Lead Food-Safety Mandate,” Washington Post, January 14, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/13/AR2010011304402.html.
- 5.
Ramon Seidler, in conversation with the author, February 2017.
- 6.
Lisa P. Jackson (EPA), memorandum titled “Opening Memo to EPA Employees,” January 23, 2009, http://web.archive.org/web/20100313093014/http:/blog.epa.gov/administrator/2009/01/26/opening-memo-to-epa-employees.
- 7.
U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Chemical Assessments: Low Productivity and New Interagency Review Process Limit the Usefulness and Credibility of EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System,” Report to the Chairman, Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S. Senate, GAO-08-440, March 2008, http://www.gao.gov/assets/280/273184.pdf.
- 8.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Integrated Risk Information System, “Glyphosate; CASRN 1071-83-6,” Chemical Assessment Summary, January 31, 1987, https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris/iris_documents/documents/subst/0057_summary.pdf.
- 9.
Union of Concerned Scientists, Scientific Integrity Program, “Interference at the EPA: Science and Politics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” April 2008, http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/scientific_integrity/interference-at-the-epa.pdf.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
“Congressional Testimony of EPA’s Dr. David Lewis,” transcript of hearing by the Committee on Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals, U.S. House of Representatives, February 4, 2004, http://deadlydeceit.com/CongressionalTestimony-DavidLewis.html.
- 12.
Jeff Ruch, in conversation with the author, January 2017.
- 13.
Jonathan Lundgren, in conversation with the author, January 2017.
- 14.
Michael Goodis (EPA), e-mail to Richard Keigwin et al., March 23, 2015, obtained from the EPA by U.S. Right to Know, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-pJR4cGo9ckVjhZVFhiWXNxNG8/view.
- 15.
Monsanto Company, “Talking Points on the IARC Assessment of Glyphosate Published Online in Lancet Oncology, March 20, 2015,” obtained from the EPA by U.S. Right to Know, https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Talking-Points-page-1-Pub.pdf.
- 16.
Marion Copley (former scientist, EPA), letter to Jess Rowland (EPA), March 4, 2013, Case 3:16-md-02741-VC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Document 141-1, filed February 10, 2017, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-pJR4cGo9ckUU1OQjJjcVQ4aUU/view.
- 17.
Evaggelos Vallianatos, in conversation with the author, January 2017.
- 18.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “EPA’s Budget and Spending,” https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/budget.
- 19.
U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Pesticides: EPA Should Take Steps to Improve Its Oversight of Conditional Registrations,” GAO-13-145, August 8, 2013, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-145.
- 20.
Natural Resources Defense Council, “NRDC Report: More Than 10,000 Pesticides Approved by Flawed EPA Process,” press release, March 27, 2013, https://www.nrdc.org/media/2013/130327.
- 21.
Associated Press, “US Officials Found to Be Using Secret Government Email Accounts,” The Guardian, June 4, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/04/us-officials-secret-email-accounts.
- 22.
Patricia Callahan, “EPA Tosses Aside Safety Data, Says Dow Pesticide for GMOs Won’t Harm People,” Chicago Tribune, December 8, 2015, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/ct-gmo-crops-pesticide-resistance-met-20151203-story.html.
- 23.
Center for Responsive Politics, “CropLife America: Lobbying Totals, 1998– 2016,” https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/lobby.php?id=D000025187.
- 24.
Center for Responsive Politics, “Agribusiness: Sector Profile, 2016: Annual Lobbying on Agribusiness,” https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indus.php?id=A&year=2016.
- 25.
Center for Responsive Politics, “Agribusiness Sector: PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates, 2016,” https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/sector.php?txt=A01&cycle=2016.
- 26.
Janet E. Collins (CropLife America), letter to Steven Knott (EPA), October 4, 2016, http://191hmt1pr08amfq62276etw2.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CLA-Comments-FIFRA-SAP-Glyphosate-section-7-10-04-16.pdf.
- 27.
Charlie Tebbutt, in conversation with the author, January 2017.
- 28.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “EPA Administrator Pruitt Denies Petition to Ban Widely Used Pesticide,” press release, March 29, 2017, https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-denies-petition-ban-widely-used-pesticide-0.
- 29.
Megan R. Wilson, “Corporate Donors to Trump Inaugural Revealed,” The Hill, February 2, 2017, http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/317591-corporate-donors-to-trump-inaugural-revealed.
- 30.
Matthew Herper, “Keep Politics Out of Science, Says Departing FDA Chief,” Forbes, January 23, 2017, http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2017/01/23/keep-politics-out-of-science-says-departing-fda-chief/#58aa046b5f90.
- 31.
Paul Winchester, in conversation with the author, April 2017.
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Gillam, C. (2017). Under the Influence. In: Whitewash. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-833-6_12
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