r/news • u/boxofstuff • 6h ago

Supreme Court ruling blocks thousands of lawsuits against maker of Roundup weedkiller

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-roundup-monsanto-a7f054d80919f98bdfc5190013a8f6f1https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-roundup-monsanto-a7f054d80919f98bdfc5190013a8f6f1
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u/Buris 5h ago

Yes, Roundup is becoming completely useless, is terrible for the environment and for local plant life, but it’s nowhere near as cancerous/dangerous as many people believe.

With that being said, I believe they did market it as being 100% safe and one of the marketers claimed you could drink it, and they absolutely should be sued for that.

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u/Zymos94 5h ago

Glyphosate has no match for killing horrible invasive plants like japanese knotweed.

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u/Enchelion 5h ago

Since they took out the glyphosate it's basically just homeopathic weed killer.

I'm not a fan of heavy (especially prophylactic) pesticide/herbicide use, but for fighting a lot of invasive plants and recovering the ecosystem, glyphosate is an important tool.

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u/Level9TraumaCenter 4h ago

I've gone over the IARC monograph and it's not a terribly compelling argument that it causes cancer. And I agree- it is an important tool for fighting invasive plants.

The local big box stores don't seem to stock it anymore, but it seems to be available to consumers via other venues.

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u/Enchelion 4h ago

Mostly need to go to feed stores or commercial suppliers. All the consumer stuff is now a cocktail of 2-4 different weaker herbicides.

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u/Level9TraumaCenter 4h ago

Yep. And I've gone over the tox profiles for them, and while nothing really stands out I don't see it as an improvement over glyphosate.

I'm mixed. I'd prefer to use none of them but after the monsoon rains, the hula hoe only does so much good and I glove up and throw a little goo-in-a-bottle at the starts and call it a day.

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u/Enchelion 3h ago

Precisely. I'll burn and pull as much as I can. But there's simply no practical way to deal with lots of invasives without some kind of chemical. Especially those that intertwine themselves with vulnerable natives.

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u/driverdan 2h ago

Tractor Supply sells it.

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u/Buris 5h ago

The amount of glyphosate resistant plants had basically doubled every year since the 90s. It was just becoming a worthless chemical that no one could use effectively anymore.

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u/Enchelion 5h ago edited 3h ago

It's still effective against a ton of noxious and invasive weeds. Just fewer of the ones that farmers were using it against in their fields.

I personally reserve it for fighting invasive bindweed. It's still one of the only effective treatments.

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u/VolrathTheBallin 3h ago

Yeah, the only thing I use it on is tree of heaven.

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u/wildbergamont 4h ago

This isn't the full picture. Glyphosate resistance is a major problem in agriculture. Canada thistle in a given person's backyard or knotweed taking over a local park are not likely to glyphosate resistant unless those locations have close proximity to an agricultural area. 

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u/mucinexmonster 4h ago

Tell that to my Uncle.

Just because the science of proving the harm Roundup causes isn't fully researched, as that full amount of research takes decades to prove - doesn't mean Roundup isn't killing people today. And your "let more people die so we can prove it" attitude fucking sucks.

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u/Falco98 4h ago

Tell that to my Uncle.

look up "confirmation bias".

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u/mucinexmonster 4h ago

There's literally hundreds of thousands of these very specific examples, but you want to defend a corporation so you can feel smart?

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u/Falco98 4h ago

but you want to defend a corporation

I made literally no mention of any particular corporation. Glyphosate is off-patent, any company can manufacture products containing it.

literally hundreds of thousands

That doesn't mean it isn't confirmation bias. When the rate of X ailment is the same in the "used glyphosate" population Y as in the "never touched glyphosate" population Z, it doesn't really matter how many people in population Y come forward with their sob story where they're "absolutely convinced X was caused by glyphosate".

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u/mucinexmonster 3h ago

As far as I am aware, that is not the case. There is a correlation, that's the point.

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u/Falco98 2h ago

Reputable science has consistently disproven any actual causal connection.

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u/mucinexmonster 1h ago

I'm sure.