What to Know About the Decision to Withdraw Glyphosate from the Lawn & Garden Market

On July 29, Bayer announced to shareholders their intent to withdraw glyphosate from the residential use market. But what does this mean? What do we need to know?

This change is about liability, not safety
Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer AG says, "“Let me be very clear that (this decision) is exclusively geared at managing litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns."

Roundup will still continue to be sold to consumers
Liam Condon, president of the Bayer Crop Science Division and a member of the Bayer AG board of management says that, “What is new will be the formulation or formulations and will include multiple active ingredients." The new formulation will still be sold under the Roundup brand.

The new formulations will likely be a "regrettable substitution"
We see this happening in municipalities often. Staff or contractors will stop using glyphosate based herbicides, and replace them with glufosinate or diquat dibromide. Products containing these active ingredients are sometimes paired with other herbicides that inhibit seed germination called preemergents, like ones with indaziflam or flumioxizan. 

Other glyphosate containing herbicides will still be available for sale
This decision comes from the manufacturer of one glyphosate containing product, but there are many more formulations sold by other companies in the lawn and garden market.

Roundup and glyphosate will still be sold 
This decision does not affect sales to, or use by lawn companies, municipal staff, schools, homeowners associations or other similar entities.

The other thousands of toxic pesticides on the market will also continue to be used and sold
The EPA has registered over 1,200 active ingredients and over 16,800 pesticide products. Glyphosate is just one of those active ingredients.

While this move by Bayer to avoid liability can be seen as a win, it is not a victory. Our work is far from over. We need to continue to advocate for health protective organic practices in our communities, not banning single chemicals.

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