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An Award-Winning Discovery

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Whitewash

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Abstract

It’s unclear if Swiss chemist Henri Martin ever fully understood the billion-dollar baby he brought into the world when he discovered what would eventually become known to scientists as N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, or glyphosate. After all, Martin was not looking for an herbicide; he was looking for a drug. It was 1950, the dawn of an era in which efforts to address global health issues were evolving into fresh profit centers that spawned waves of new drug offerings. General scientific research, particularly biological research, was expanding; enhanced mechanization meant faster and more robust production of new drugs; and the race was on to find the latest and greatest magic potion. Martin was working at the time for a small pharmaceutical company called Cilag, which would be acquired by the burgeoning giant Johnson & Johnson Company in 1959.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Gerald M. Dill et al., “Glyphosate: Discovery, Development, Applications, and Properties,” in Glyphosate Resistance in Crops and Weeds: History, Development, and Management, ed. Vijay K. Nandula (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), p. 1.

  2. 2.

    Ernst Schönbrunn et al., “Interaction of the Herbicide Glyphosate with Its Target Enzyme 5‑Enolpyruvylshikimate 3‑Phosphate Synthase in Atomic Detail,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98, no. 4 (February 13, 2001): 1376–1380, doi:10.1073/pnas.98.4.1376.

  3. 3.

    U.S. Patent Office, “3,799,758, N-Phosphonomethyl-Glycine Phytotoxicant Compositions, John E. Franz, Crestwood, Mo., assignor to Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Mo.”

  4. 4.

    National Science & Technology Medals Foundation, “John E. Franz: National Medal of Technology and Innovation, Agriculture, 1987,” http://www.nationalmedals.org/laureates/john-e-franz.

  5. 5.

    Stephen B. Powles, “Gene Amplification Delivers Glyphosate-Resistant Weed Evolution,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 3 (January 19, 2010): 955–956, doi:10.1073/pnas.0913433107.

  6. 6.

    Monsanto Company, “Biography of Dr. John Franz,” https://web.archive.org/web/20080724175539/http://www.monsanto.com/features/franz_bio.asp.

  7. 7.

    Nick Visser, “Monsanto Advocate Says Roundup Is Safe Enough to Drink, Then Refuses to Drink It,” Huffington Post, March 27, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/27/monsanto-roundup-patrick-moore_n_6956034.html.

  8. 8.

    Monsanto Company, “Glyphosate Isn’t a Beverage; Patrick Moore Isn’t a Monsanto Lobbyist,” Beyond the Rows (blog), March 27, 2015, http://monsantoblog.com/2015/03/27/glyphosate-isnt-a-beverage-patrick-mooreisnt-a-monsanto-lobbyist/.

  9. 9.

    U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Development of Phosphate Resources in Southeastern Idaho: Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1976), p. 1-8.

  10. 10.

    Stephen O. Duke and Stephen B. Powles, “Glyphosate: A Once-in-a-Century Herbicide,” Pest Management Science 64, no. 4 (online version dated February 13, 2008): 319–325, doi:10.1002/ps.1518, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228666854_Mini-review_Glyphosate_a_once-in-a-century_herbicide.

  11. 11.

    Dennis C. Williams, “The Guardian: EPA’s Formative Years, 1970–1973,” September 1993, EPA Web Archive EPA-202-K-93-002, https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/guardian-epas-formative-years-1970-1973.html.

  12. 12.

    William Sanjour, in conversation with the author, July 15, 2016.

  13. 13.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “R.E.D. Facts: Glyphosate,” EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision EPA-738-F-93-011, September 1993, p. 4, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/reregistration/web/pdf/0178fact.pdf.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., p. 2.

  15. 15.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, memorandum titled “Consensus Review of Glyphosate, Caswell No. 661A,” March 4, 1985, https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/cleared_reviews/csr_PC-103601_4-Mar-85_171.pdf.

  16. 16.

    Ibid.

  17. 17.

    William Dykstra (EPA), memorandum to Hoyt Jamerson (EPA), February 10, 1984, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/103601-166.pdf.

  18. 18.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Risk Assessment for Carcinogenic Effects,” https://www.epa.gov/fera/risk-assessment-carcinogens.

  19. 19.

    George J. Levinskas (Monsanto), memorandum to T. F. Evans, April 3, 1985, https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MDL1985mouseslidememo.pdf.

  20. 20.

    Nancy Beiles, “What Monsanto Knew,” The Nation, May 11, 2000, https://www.thenation.com/article/what-monsanto-knew/.

  21. 21.

    Robert Sauer, “Pathology Working Group Report on Glyphosate in CD-1 Mice,” Pathco Inc., October 10, 1985.

  22. 22.

    Stephen L. Johnson (FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel), memorandum to Steven Schatzow (EPA), February 24, 1986, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/103601-209.pdf.

  23. 23.

    William Dykstra (EPA), memorandum to Robert J. Taylor (EPA), June 19, 1989, https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/EPA-on-mouse-study-repoeatHQ_0000612.pdf.

  24. 24.

    Dennis P. Ward (Monsanto), letter to Robert J. Taylor (EPA), December 12, 1988, https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/EPA-on-mouse-study-repoeatHQ_0000612.pdf.

  25. 25.

    William Dykstra and George Z. Ghali (EPA), memorandum to Robert Taylor and Lois Rossi (EPA), October 30, 1991, p. 1, https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/cleared_reviews/csr_PC-103601_30-Oct-91_265.pdf.

  26. 26.

    “3-Ex Officials of Major Laboratory Convicted of Falsifying Drug Tests,” New York Times, October 22, 1983, http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/22/us/3-ex-officials-of-major-laboratory-convicted-of-falsifying-drug-tests.html.

  27. 27.

    Ellen Griffith Spears, Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), pp. 156–157.

  28. 28.

    Cate Jenkins (EPA), memorandum to John West and Kevin Guarino (EPA), November 15, 1990, http://www.pbs.org/pov/stories/vietnam/discuss/38/post.5.

  29. 29.

    E. G. Vallianatos and McKay Jenkins, Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2014), pp. 63–66.

  30. 30.

    Douglas Foster and Mark Dowie, “The Illusion of Safety—Part One: Poisoned Research,” Mother Jones, June 1982, p. 45.

  31. 31.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, “Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED): Glyphosate,” September 1993, Appendix C, pp. C-3–C-37, http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5338c313e4b0cb384b4b7995/t/56526443e4b0a376ef850828/1448240195891/1993+epa+glyphosate+RED.pdf.

  32. 32.

    Nathan Donley, scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, in conversation with the author, July 20, 2016.

  33. 33.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, Office of Pesticide Programs, “Environmental Fact Sheet: Risk/ Benefit Balancing under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act,” February 1990, https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=9100CFR2.TXT.

  34. 34.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, “Reregistration Eligibility Decision (RED): Glyphosate,” September 1993, Appendix C, pp. C-3–C-37, http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5338c313e4b0cb384b4b7995/t/56526443e4b0a376ef850828/1448240195891/1993+epa+glyphosate+RED.pdf.

  35. 35.

    Maxie Jo Nelson (EPA), memorandum to R. Taylor and V. Walters (EPA), March 22, 1989, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/103601-245.pdf.

  36. 36.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “R.E.D. Facts: Glyphosate,” EPA-738-F-93-011, September 1993, p. 4, https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/reregistration/fs_PC-417300_1-Sep-93.pdf.

  37. 37.

    Arthur Grube et al., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Office of Pesticide Programs, Biological and Economic Analysis Division, “Pesticides Industry Sales and Usage: 2006–2007 Market Estimates,” February 2011, p. 12, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-10/documents/market_estimates2007.pdf.

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Gillam, C. (2017). An Award-Winning Discovery. In: Whitewash. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-833-6_3

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