Brazil court rules that licenses for all glyphosate products be suspended

Brazil’s government is contesting a court suspension of licenses for products with glyphosate, one of the most common industrial weedkillers around the world. A federal judge in the capital Brasilia last week ruled that “licenses for all products” with the chemical must be suspended within 30 days. Also in the ban are the chemicals thiram and abamectin. The suspension is to continue until the government sanitary agency completes a “toxicological reevaluation,” the ruling said. Brazil’s government promises to appeal, given the importance of glyphosate to Brazil’s huge agriculture industry, the world’s biggest exporter of soya. “The whole direct planting system is based on glyphosate,” Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi told Valor financial daily on Thursday. Read more. [Note: A federal court on Thursday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US to ban glyphosate/Roundup.]