PESTICIDES
Brazil's labor prosecutors move to ban an ubiquitous herbicide
A crop sprayer in a soybean field in Rio Verde, Goiás. Photo: Alf Ribeiro/Shutterstock
Glyphosate is the chemical scaffolding of Brazilian agribusiness. Most of the country's soybean and corn crops are grown from seeds engineered to survive it, and it accounted for 41% of the national pesticide market in 2024, per official data, with Bayer selling it under the Roundup label. In May, a group of labor prosecutors asked the courts to take it off the market entirely.
The filing, brought by the pesticides task force of the Labor Prosecution Office (MPT), wants the health regulator Anvisa and the federal government to cancel every glyphosate registration in Brazil and bar its production, import, export, sale and use, under penalty of a BRL 1 million (USD 194,000) fine.
The prosecutors frame the herbicide less as an environmental hazard than as a …
🔒 This was a free preview; the rest is behind our paywall
Don’t miss out! Upgrade to unlock full access. The process takes only seconds with Apple Pay or Stripe. Become a member.
Why you should subscribe
We’re here for readers who want to truly understand Brazil and Latin America — a region too often ignored or misrepresented by the international media.
Since 2017, our reporting has been powered by paid subscribers. They’re the reason we can keep a full-time team of journalists across Brazil and Argentina, delivering sharp, independent coverage every day.
If you value our work, subscribing is the best way to keep it going — and growing.
You already back us. Here's why we're asking for more
You're already a subscriber — which means you've made a choice. You decided that understanding Brazil, accurately and ahead of the headlines, was worth paying for. Thank you. That choice is the reason we exist.
Every contribution above your subscription goes directly into journalism: the reporters and editors on the ground in São Paulo, Brasília, and Rio who file what parachute correspondents and recycled-wire intelligence simply can't. It's the difference between covering 2026 and covering it the way it deserves to be covered.
If The Brazilian Report has earned a place in how you read the country, consider giving beyond what you already pay. Whatever the amount, it funds the work — and it keeps it independent.
Interested in advertising with us? Get in touch.
Need a special report? We can do it.
Have an idea for an article or column? Pitch us
