Glyphosate

Abstract

Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world. Globally, 6.1 billion kilograms have been applied in the last decade alone. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), classified glyphosate as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’. In stark contrast, regulatory authorities worldwide have attributed non-carcinogenic properties to glyphosate. By charting its recent regulatory history, this chapter demonstrates how glyphosate has been ‘subjected’ to law through a politics of separation. In the hybrid regulatory space where science and law interact, law retains its authority by cutting-off arguments. This politics of separation is expedient, as law ought to resolve conflicts, to decide. However, by cutting-off debate and discourse, political choices are being back-staged. Glyphosate, as an object of law, has catalyzed contestation of existing regulatory categories (eg risk assessment/hazard analysis). In so doing, glyphosate has brought the politics back to the front-stage, triggering a process of re-politicization of transnational risk regulation.