VICTORY: California court rules against Monsanto and allows cancer warning labels on Roundup

Fresno County Superior Court Judge Kristi Kapetan has issued a tentative ruling that all products containing glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, be labeled as probable cancer causers.

The move was issued late January, 2017, and would go into effect in one year if upheld.

Monsanto attorney Trenton Norris argued in court that the label would hinder Monsanto's ability to sell the product.  Currently, the product is sold in more than 160 countries and used by farmers in California on 250 types of crops.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it has “low toxicity” and recommends people avoid entering a field for 12 hours after it has been applied, yet no warning label has yet been applied to the containers.  However, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a Lyon, France-based branch of the U.N. World Health Organization, classified the chemical as a “probable human carcinogen," and now California is catching on.

Some Monsanto lawyers argue that because the UN is an unelected body of members, their findings have no merit.  Others in California disagree, citing the International Agency for Research on Cancer as the "gold standard" for identifying carcinogens.