News Release

For Immediate Release: Monday, December 5, 2022
For More Information Contact: Stacy Malkan, stacy@usrtk.org, 510-542-9224

A new report, Merchants of Poison: How Monsanto Sold the World on a Toxic Pesticide, illuminates the disinformation, science denial, and manufactured doubt at the core of the pesticide industry’s public relations playbook. Centering the herbicide glyphosate (known by its brand name Roundup®) as a case study, the report is the first comprehensive review of Monsanto’s product defense strategy, including the disinformation tactics it used to manipulate the science and attack scientists and journalists who raised concerns about the health and environmental risks of its flagship product, the world’s most widely used herbicide.

The report also reveals the astroturf operations as well as front groups, professors, journalists, and others that Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) relied on to protect its profits from glyphosate despite decades of science linking the toxic chemical to cancer, reproductive impacts, and other serious health concerns.