President Trump’s order aims to boost domestic glyphosate output for food security, despite WHO cancer concerns and Bayer’s ongoing legal settlements.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to support US production of the herbicide glyphosate. The White House argues the chemical is essential for national food security.

It stated that glyphosate-based herbicides are widely used in American agriculture. Domestic production is currently insufficient to meet national demand.

The order tasks the US secretary of agriculture with facilitating production of glyphosate and phosphorus. Phosphorus is a necessary chemical component that also has military uses.

German firm Bayer is the only US producer of glyphosate herbicides since acquiring Monsanto in 2018. “The US president’s executive order reinforces the critical need for US farmers to have access to essential, domestically produced crop protection tools such as glyphosate,” Bayer said.

The company added it would comply with the order. This move comes despite the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency classifying glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen.”

US and European Union regulators do not consider glyphosate a carcinogen. Bayer denies that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer.

On Tuesday, Bayer said Monsanto proposed a class settlement up to USD 7.25 billion. This aims to settle claims that Roundup causes blood cancer.

The firm has spent over USD 10 billion settling thousands of cases since 2018. Approximately 67,000 cases are still pending.

Chief executive Bill Anderson said the settlements imply no admission of liability. He called them necessary due to a “broken” US legal system.

The US Supreme Court agreed in January to hear Bayer’s appeal. It is challenging a USD 1.25 million award to a Missouri man who blamed Roundup for his cancer.

 The Sun Malaysia