This week, right at the very last moment, the EU voted to renew the licence for glyphosate for 5 years. There’s no sugar-coating this bitter pill -- this is a big blow. Now, Monsanto will continue to spread this toxic chemical over Europe’s fields and put our health at more risk.

After 2 failed attempts to relicense, it looked like the same thing would happen at this third and final attempt. We had sat down and calculated which member states would vote against renewal and it looked it we would win. But right at the very last moment, the German delegate switched their vote meaning renewal scraped by with just 0.71% over the threshold.

This is a setback for us. But this isn’t over. Together, we created a huge movement and sent a powerful message to politicians across Europe. We stopped Monsanto from getting the fifteen, then ten-year licenses that they wanted. And we’ve shifted the narrative towards a widespread understanding that glyphosate needs a timetable for a phase-out.

Thanks to our work, the end of glyphosate is no longer a question of if, but when.

Our community was right at the heart of this Europe-wide campaign. Together we signed petitions, called our MEPs, emailed decision makers, chipped in to run opinion polls in multiple countries, attended events, petition deliveries and more. As a result we forced glyphosate not only onto the political agenda, but pushed it right to the top.

We saw people overcome the hurdles of borders and language to work collectively for a single goal. We proved that European cooperation isn’t just something that happens between elites in the corridors of power in Brussels, but true European cooperation is something that happens on the streets, online, and between citizens.

SumOfUs can only run huge campaigns like this with help from our members. We don't take any money from big business or governments and are almost totally funded by small donations from our members. Can you help us keep this campaign going by chipping in what you can?

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