The campaign against glyphosate is having an impact: breweries are refusing to buy malt barley if it’s been sprayed with glyphosate before harvest, oat millers are telling growers not to apply the herbicide pre-harvest and Italian pasta makers are refusing to buy Canadian durum partly because of concerns over glyphosate residues.

The public conversation around glyphosate is all flowing in one direction. A cluster of environmental campaigners, organic food activists and crusading scientists are dominating the discussion around the controversial herbicide.

Over the last few weeks, groups like the Organic Consumers Association and Beyond Pesticides have blitzed the North American media with news releases and social media activity to convince the public that glyphosate is a grave risk to human health.

In their statements, they claim that human exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, causes autism, cancer, Crohn’s disease, depression, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and a list of other ailments.