Investigating glyphosate

N-phosphonomethylglycine, better known as glyphosate, is a broad-system herbicide marketed since 1974 as a weed killer. Discovered by a Monsanto chemist, it is widely recognised as the herbicide Roundup, a trade name now owned by Bayer after the chemical giant acquired Monsanto in 2018.

Specifically, glyphosate is an endocrine communication molecule disruptor, inhibiting the transfer of enzymes essential for life in many plants and micro-organisms — though not in humans, it must be said.

Nevertheless, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. WHO