Brazil Wants to Ban Glyphosate Herbicide
Brazil is quickly trying to change course on its biotech policies and capture more of the world market demanding GMO-free products. We reported recently that the United State's lax GMO laws are hurting U.S. exports to countries who have stricter GMO policies. This includes a recent announcement that China had rejected U.S. GMO corn, resulting in a sales loss of over 1 million tons of corn. China instead turned to Brazil to purchase their corn this year. Now Brazil is reportedly looking to ban the use of glyphosate as well, the toxic herbicide (trade name of Roundup) which has been linked to many health problems with the recent publication of new research. Glyphosate is the herbicide sprayed on GMO crops which have been genetically altered to not die when sprayed with glyphosate. It is so pervasive in agriculture today, that a recent study indicated that tests of breast milk found the presence of glyphosate in 3 out 10 mothers tested. It would be nearly impossible at this time to ban glyphosate in the U.S., due to the strong sales of the product and the powerful biotech political lobbyists. If Brazil is successful, could Brazil become a major world producer and supplier of non-GMO and glyphosate-free products?