First of all I would like to apologise to everyone that signed the petition that this is my first update for several months.

As we start this New Year, I’m sad to report that cancer-linked glyphosate is still being sold freely in stores across the UK (including those like B&Q and Homebase who promised to ‘review’ their stocking of Roundup). 

But there is hope – earlier this week a court in France banned glyphosate across the country with immediate effect over safety concerns. A court in Lyon ruled that the approval granted by the French environment agency in 2017 failed to take into account potential health risks and stated that “Roundup Pro 360 … is a potentially carcinogenic product for humans, suspected of being toxic for human reproduction and for aquatic organisms”.

In the last few days it has also been revealed that the key risk assessment used by The European Food Safety Authority when they decided to re-license glyphosate in the EU was plagiarised from Monsanto's own studies. An investigation, revealed by the Guardian, showed that Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) copied-and-pasted findings directly from Monsanto’s reports. The study found plagiarism in 50.1% of the chapters assessing published studies on health risks – including whole paragraphs and entire pages of text.

I appreciate that the current political turmoil has left a lot of people feeling disillusioned about our political process, however I want to ensure that the voice of every single person who has signed the petition is heard directly by the Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – George Eustice. I plan to present the petition to him at his office close to where I live in Cornwall at the earliest opportunity, and ask him to ensure that 120,000 people’s voices, and the scientific evidence, is not ignored.

I’d like to make sure that there are as many signatures as possible when I deliver it so please do consider sharing the petition with your family, friends, colleagues and networks if you feel you can.

Thank you so much for your continued support!

Abbie