Like skittles, one after the other the authorizations to use the glyphosate in agriculture. The powerful plant protection product, considered carcinogenic by environmentalists, is at the center of a complex international judicial affair and in Italy there are plenty of bans on its use. The last administration in chronological order was the Marche Region, which definitively approved a regional law to prevent farmers and companies from using the pesticide in areas close to drinking water sources.
It was there that opened the opposite front Toscana with a provision that from 2021 prohibits the cultivation of land using glyphosate. A choice made when Bayer (the largest producer in the world) was still defending the pesticide before the European and American judicial authorities. Moreover, the industrial giant has never admitted that agricultural products grown with glyphosate can cause damage to health.
The Regions act autonomously on a very delicate front, which moves global economic interests. Meanwhile, the government is called into question for the delays in transposing the European directive on pesticides.
"Our law - said the President of the Marches Environment Commission, Andrea Biancani - anticipates the implementation by the State of the Community directive on phytosanitary matters, pending the definition of a detailed list of prohibited harmful substances".
For the European Union, just over two and a half years ago, Brussels took the controversial decision to renew the authorization of the most widespread herbicide in the world. The permit will expire in 2022 and the continental tender could start from that date. The countries, however, move in no particular order: after Austria's rethink, Luxembourg will be the first EU state to ban the use of the herbicide as early as 2021. A decision that anticipated those of France and Germany. Italy risks arriving unprepared for the 2022 appointment, with a national plan still in the consultation phase that does not address the issue.
Meantime Bayer – which markets Roundup, i.e. the best known herbicide-glyphosate – is about to close with an agreement, half of the 125 lawsuits called for the alleged damage to health and the environment caused by glyphosate. A billionaire compensation following the acquisition by the German multinational of the American Monsanto, producer of Roundup.
The news circulated last week in European financial circles, causing Bayer shares to rise 8,45% on the German Dax. In fact, until there is the final word - between scientific opinions, sentences, political battles - the company will not give up trading glyphosate-based products, which produce an estimated turnover of 5 billion dollars per year. year. Something far superior to the solitary battle of the Italian Regions.
