It might come as a surprise that a train company is Germany’s biggest glyphosate user. Every year, the national railway Deutsche Bahn sprays over 65 thousand kilograms of toxic pesticide on its tracks — endangering ecosystems throughout the whole country.
Austria’s national railway company has pledged to completely end its use of glyphosate within five years — there’s no reason why Deutsche Bahn can’t do the same.
The German government is currently looking for ways to reduce glyphosate use. This is the perfect time to put public pressure on the 100 percent state-owned railway corporation to phase out the dangerous pesticide.
Deutsche Bahn’s railway network spans 33,500 kilometers — that’s 33,500 kilometers soaked with glyphosate, spreading its poisonous traces through all of Germany.
As a self-dubbed „environmental pioneer“, Deutsche Bahn should do better than that. If the company really cares about sustainability and environmental protection, it has to stop using this noxious chemical, which has been linked to heightened cancer risk in both humans and animals.
Thanks to SumOfUs members like you, the harmful pesticide is losing its stranglehold on Europe. Backed by a mountain of scientific evidence of glyphosate’s harmful effects, we came together and got the EU Commission to extend its licence to only 5 years instead of the 15 years that agricultural lobbyists wanted.
We’re not done with glyphosate yet. But if we can get Germany’s biggest user of the toxic weedkiller to reconsider, the light at the end of the (railway) tunnel might just be in sight.