Nick Meyer
Costco is well known among diehard shoppers as a supporter of organic and natural foods, having become the top seller of organic products in September 2016, surpassing Whole Foods for the #1 spot. The company was eventually surpassed by Wal-Mart and currently sits at #2 on the overall list in the United States, but they seem to be improving by the day, if their latest major endeavor is any indication.
Recently, Costco decided to up the ante by taking an unprecedented step in its retail catalogue, announcing and implementing a ban on one of the most toxic and potentially deadly everyday products in the world. And this time around, Monsanto’s bottom line looks like it will end up as the “biggest loser” in this transaction.
Costco Officially Bans Cancer-Linked Herbicide in All Its Stores The non-profit organization Moms Across America has been active on the front lines of several key health-related issues, especially when it comes to glyphosate, the chemical used in Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide glyphosate.
Glyphosate has been deemed a “probable human carcinogen” by the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm the I ARC, and it was even found to be the cause of California groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson’s terminal cancer in a recent landmark trial.
In 2019, Moms Across America learned that glyphosate will be banned in all Costco stores across the country, in response to lawsuits against the toxic chemical that were settled for hundreds of millions of dollars by those who contracted cancer after its use.
The news was confirmed in a blog post from Moms Across America founder Zen Honeycutt, who learned with three Costco employees that the company is no longer ordering Roundup or any glyphosate-based herbicides.
“This is HUGE! How fantastic!” Honeycutt wrote. “One employee mentioned that they had looked into organic alternatives first and were happy with the results. More than one employee mentioned the lawsuit (Johnson V Monsanto) for part of the reasoning.
“They said they just felt like it was the right thing to do,” her post continued.
In December 2020, the website Eat This! Not That! confirmed that Roundup had been given the boot in Costco stores.
The decision came at a time when U.S. regulators, activist groups, and even courtrooms across the country hotly debated the alleged safety of the chemical, which has been found in levels higher than the established safety limit in several popular foods ranging from Cheerios to oatmeal, Oreo cookies and many more. In summer 2020, it was found in several brands of non-organic hummus, although five brands tested 100% free from the controversial chemical.
In light of their decision to ban the toxic and potentially dangerous herbicide, Moms Across America had high praise for the retailer, and urged readers to thank the company for its landmark decision.
“Costco has been doing the right thing in many ways for years,” Honeycutt wrote. “They are one of the biggest retailers of organic food in America, and they actively support farmers transitioning to organic. “Being able to buy organic food, and now organic weed killers at their stores is a great motivating factor to get a membership and we hope that our supporters do.”
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