In a 3-0 decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with several environmental, farmworker and food-safety advocacy groups that the EPA did not adequately consider whether glyphosate causes cancer and threatens endangered species.
The litigation began after the EPA reauthorized the use of glyphosate in January 2020.
Groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Food Safety and the Rural Coalition, which represents farmworkers, faulted the agency for approving glyphosate despite its alleged harms to agriculture, farmers exposed during spraying, and wildlife such as the monarch butterfly.
Circuit Judge Michelle Friedland wrote for the Pasadena, California-based appeals court that the EPA did not properly justify its findings that glyphosate did not threaten human health and was unlikely to be carcinogenic to humans. She also faulted aspects of the agency’s approval process.
