WASHINGTON, D.C. — US President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday aimed at supporting US glyphosate production, arguing that the herbicide, which the WHO says is a probable carcenogenic, is essential to the country’s food security.

The White House said that glyphosate-based herbicides are widely used in American agriculture, but there is only one domestic producer, necessitating imports.

The executive order tasks the US secretary of agriculture to take measures to facilitate the US production of glyphosate and phosphorus, a chemical component necessary for glyphosate but which also has military uses.

While the US Environmental Protection Agency does not consider glyphosate a carcinogen, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization (WHO), classifies it as a “probable carcinogen.”