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French environment minister Segolene Royal will ask garden shops to stop selling Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller; some German companies have already removed it from their shelves

1. French minister calls on shops to stop selling Monsanto's Roundup
2. German companies stop sales of “Roundup”

1. French minister calls on shops to stop selling Monsanto's Roundup

Reuters, 14 June 2015
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/06/14/france-monsanto-idINL5N0Z00EH20150614

French Environment and Energy Minister Segolene Royal said on Sunday she would ask garden shops to stop selling Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller as part of a wider fight against pesticides seen as potentially harmful to humans.

"France must be offensive on stopping pesticides," Royal told France 3 television. "I have asked garden shops to stop sales of Monsanto's Roundup."

She did not specify how she would enforce this.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization (WHO), said in March that glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, was "probably carcinogenic to humans".

The designation prompted calls from some public officials and consumers for a ban on the pesticide.

Monsanto was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Mark Potter)

2. German companies stop sales of “Roundup”

by Eric Zuesse
washingtonsblog.com, June 12, 2015
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/06/german-companies-stop-sales-of-roundup.html

Submitted and translated [and with added comments] by Eric Zuesse
from German source: German Economic News, 9 June 2015
http://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/2015/06/12/monsanto-deutsche-unternehmen-stoppen-glyphosat-verkauf/
Excerpts only from Eric Zuesse’s article are reprinted below by GMWatch

The registration of glyphosate is currently being re-examined by the EU, because the current authorization of the active ingredient ends in December 2015.

After the WHO report in March had glyphosate classified as “probably carcinogenic”, the herbicide is disappearing from some stores.

However, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment did not previously share the concerns of the WHO and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Slowly some companies are rethinking the glyphosate issue.

As the nature conservation association NABU reported, the company plant [GMW: plant companies] Kölle, Knauber, Garden Centre Holland, garden centers Augsburg and Globus Baumarkt have declared in writing that in the future they’ll refrain from selling glyphosate products. In the Toom DIY stores in Germany glyphosate has already been taken off the shelves. At last report, Swiss supermarkets like Migros have discontinued glyphosate.

The company Knauber for example stated:

“Knauber has opted for the complete discontinuation of glyphosate herbicides. Thus Knauber responds to the reclassification of the herbicide’s active ingredient by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as “probably carcinogenic.” With immediate effect Knauber takes the precaution to remove all glyphosate weedkillers completely from sale. Knauber has been known in its mission statement to act responsibly towards people and the environment. Stopping the sale of glyphosate on the basis of reclassification is therefore a logical step.”

“Glyphosate is the herbicide most widely used in Germany, of which still 51 different applications for the home and garden area are permitted,” said NABU. “We hope that finally the other DIY stores like Bauhaus, Hornbach or Obi fulfill their responsibilities and remove glyphosate as quickly as possible from the shelves,” said national director Leif Miller.

Just recently, the consumer protection Ministerial Conference of the countries asked the federal government to ban the delivery of glyphosate to individuals for home gardening. NABU calls for a suspension of the authorization for glyphosate and an extensive risk assessment of the active substance.

At the beginning of May the Consumer Protection Ministerial Conference asked the federal government to “prohibit the supply of glyphosate herbicides to individuals for precautionary reasons,” it said in a statement. In addition, there should be a temporary ban on the use of it in open spaces, which are not used for agriculture or forestry, until a final re-evaluation.

On Monday, the Institute added its statement about glyphosate:

“The evaluation of the IARC is expected to be scientifically comprehensible only if the detailed report of the reasons for the conclusions is published. The justifications for the conclusions of the IARC can not yet be fully assessed.”

For this reason, glyphosate has not been classified in Germany as carcinogenic.