Roundup, one of the most common and widely used weed killer, contains Glyphosate as one of its main ingredients. Glyphosate is a systemic and broad spectrum herbicide which was patented by a U.S. company, Monsanto, in 1970. Bayer acquired Monsanto on June 7, 2018.
After the patent for Monsanto expired in the U.S. in 2000 and outside the U.S. in 1991, many other manufacturers started marketing their own glyphosate products leading to a substantial increase in the sales and global usage. The chemical name of glyphosate is N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, and it blocks an enzyme in the plant which is needed for preparing amino acids and proteins, thus, killing the plants within a few days.
Since 2013, there was an awareness created about Roundup that it may be connected to some serious medical conditions. This was confirmed in March 2015, when the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that there was a probable link between glyphosate and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other forms of cancer. It is believed that the manufacturer knew about this linkage and covered its tracks unofficially. In December 2018, the city of Sonoma banned the use of glyphosate-based herbicides on all the city properties. While, in January 2019, French authorities officially stopped the sale of Roundup Pro 360, and in March 2019, the city of Miami banned the use of glyphosate-based herbicides in the city’s properties.
