Bayer CEO says 2025 key for future of Roundup in U.S.
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Bayer is fighting to keep the popular agricultural herbicide Roundup available for farmers in the U.S., but could "reach the end of the road" and pull out of the market amid mounting challenges, CEO Bill Anderson said at an Axios event on Wednesday night.
Why it matters: Anderson said the chemical, known as glyphosate, has been repeatedly found safe and is "table stakes" for feeding the world.
- "Glyphosate combined with GMO crops is why we can feed 8 billion people in the world," Anderson said. "When I was a child, we struggled to feed 3.5 billion people in the world."
Friction point: A report from the Make America Healthy Again Commission is anticipated Thursday about the causes of chronic disease in America, which is expected to target glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals.
Between the lines: Bayer produces 40% of the world's supply of glyphosate in the U.S. and exports much of it, Anderson said.
- "If we go out, the glyphosate will still be there. It just won't be produced in America, and it puts it puts American consumers at the mercy of foreign nations."
Where it stands: The company has a petition with the Supreme Court seeking a review of a Missouri Supreme Court ruling in a personal injury case, which paved the way for the high court to consider whether federal law preempts state-based failure-to-warn claims.
- Bayer is backing the Agricultural Labeling Uniformity Act at the federal level, as well as pushing for state legislatures to address "regulatory ambiguity" that has left it vulnerable to a litany of lawsuits over glyphosate since acquiring Monsanto, the producer of Roundup, in 2018.
- "The question is, is this going to be something that will still be available in America," Anderson said, adding the company will have to make that decision in 2025.
