Glyphosate: MEPs denounce huge Monsanto plagiarism

MEPs on Tuesday criticized the German health authorities for plagiarizing large parts of Monsanto's case in their file submitted at the time of the renewal of the authorization of the disputed herbicide glyphosate in 2017.

The glyphosate "not on the market on the basis of an independent evaluation". "The German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment (BfR) has been working" dirty and close to lying, "accused German MP SPD Maria Noichl at a press conference in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. saying "upset", the MEP considered that glyphosate, whose carcinogenicity is the subject of conflicting studies, "was not on the market on the basis of an independent and transparent evaluation".

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According to a study commissioned by several left-wing MEPs and environmentalists, the BfR report, produced on the occasion of the renewal of the glyphosate license, "copies word for word" of the passages of the application filed by Monsanto, which constitutes "de obviously plagiarism ". This study was conducted by plagiarism specialist Stefan Weber with biochemist Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, an opponent of glyphosate.

Similar charges in 2017. The European glyphosate license, which is included in Monsanto's flagship product, Roundup, expired at the end of 2017. Its renewal had sparked heated debate in the EU and was ultimately adopted for five years.

Already in 2017, several media had reported that a significant part of the report of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) appeared to be copied / pasted from a document filed in 2012 by Monsanto, on behalf of a consortium of companies marketing glyphosate in Europe. Efsa's report was itself based on that of the BfR, Germany having been designated as the rapporteur state in the dossier.

"The evaluation of the published independent scientific literature on the carcinogenicity of glyphosate comes from a large part of plagiarism and copying from the pro-glyphosate industry itself!", Said in a statement. French MEP Guillaume Balas (Generations group, left), who co-financed the study.

#Glyphosate: suspicion of confirmed plagiarism and copying, glyphosate renewal license is based on distorted elements provided by the pro-glyphosate industry itself! My press release #StopGlyphosatehttps: //t.co/CJXkz0nliB

German health authorities are defending themselves. The BfR defended Tuesday any "intentional deception", saying it is known that the authorities can incorporate in their reports relevant passages of documents provided "after a critical review".