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Bayer, the world’s largest seed and pesticide maker, has agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle tens of thousands of claims in the United States that its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, the company said Wednesday.
We’ve investigated each of the 2020 Presidential candidates to learn where they stand on GMOs by looking into who is funding their campaigns, what their records are as elected officials and what the candidates have said in their platforms and public statements.
We know where several of the Presidential candidates stand on GMOs because they were in the House or Senate in 2016. That was the year Congress removed labels from genetically engineered foods by passing a federal bill that took away states’ rights to label GMOs and instituted a federal “bioengineered disclosure” standard that has yet to result in any GMOs being labeled.
After three huge damage awards by Bay Area juries to cancer victims exposed to Monsanto Co. herbicides, a judge has partially granted the company’s request to move the next group of federal trials out of California.
While the Internet has been abuzz with claims that Costco had already dumped Monsanto’s flagship pesticide product, RoundUp, a spokesperson on behalf of the corporation only just announced on May 29 that the company is not planning to sell the product this season.
After less than two full days of deliberations, a California jury ordered Monsanto to pay just over $2 billion in punitive and compensatory damages to a married couple who both developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma they say was caused by their many years of using Roundup products.
After listening to 17 days of trial testimony, jurors said Monsanto must pay $1 billion to Alberta Pilliod, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma brain cancer in 2015, and another $1 billion to her husband Alva Pilliod, who was diagnosed in 2011 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma that spread from his bones to his pelvis and spine. The couple, who are both in their 70s, started using Roundup in the 1970s and continued using the herbicide until only a few years ago. The jury also awarded the couple a total of $55 million in damages for past and future medical bills and other losses.
A federal jury in San Francisco found Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide was a substantial factor in causing the cancer of a California man, in a landmark verdict that could affect hundreds of other cases.
While much of the nation was tuned into the Michael Cohen drama in Washington, D.C. this week, another drama was playing out in a San Francisco courtroom.
On February 25, a jury in San Francisco Federal Court began hearing the case of Edwin Hardeman vs. Monsanto. Hardeman alleges that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer.
Hardeman’s is the second case involving someone who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after using Roundup. His case follows the August 10, 2018, $289-million judgment (later reduced to $78 million) awarded to DeWayne “Lee” Johnson, a former school groundskeeper who also sued Monsanto for causing his non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Monsanto’s appeal of the $78-million judgment is still pending.
There are more than 9,000 claims pending against Monsanto in state courts, about 620 awaiting trial in federal court. Reuters reported in November that Hardeman’s case was selected as “a so-called bellwether, or test trial, frequently used in U.S. product liability mass litigation to help both sides gauge the range of damages and define settlement options.”
Anyone concerned about probable carcinogens in the environment needs to keep an eye on the trial of Edward Hardeman v. Monsanto Company, which begins on February 25, in the Federal District Court in San Francisco. A bellwether for future challenges against the company, the federal court has grouped hundreds of plaintiffs into this multidistrict litigation case.
In August, news broke that Cheerios, Quaker Oats, and other breakfast cereals were contaminated with glyphosate weed killer. Just this week, more news of glyphosate in snack bars. Parents across the nation became concerned about their family’s breakfast foods and snacks. Now we learn we must also be looking at the most popular breakfast beverage, orange juice, as well.
On 10 August this year, a California jury ruled that Roundup, the world’s most widely used herbicide, caused the terminal cancer of Dewayne Johnson, who was formerly a groundskeeper of a school near San Francisco. The jury directed Monsanto, the agricultural biotechnology corporation that owns Roundup, to pay Johnson $289 million—Rs 2116 crore—in punitive and compensatory damages.
Bayer has slashed its earnings forecast Wednesday due to, amongst other things, a growing global legal battle surrounding the carcinogenic weedkiller Roundup. The weaker earnings forecast adds to a number of challenges facing the German drugmaker as it braces for years of legal wrangling over the cancer risks of glyphosate-based weedkillers.
It’s been nearly two weeks since the historic verdict in the Monsanto trial and the news is still buzzing. On Friday,
Homebase, one of the UK’s largest DIY retailers, was the first retailer to announce it is reviewing the sale of Roundup and Ranger Pro in the wake of the landmark case in California, and others are expected to follow.
“We have confirmed that we will be reviewing our range of weedkiller products."
Two months after clinching its $66 billion purchase of Monsanto Co., Bayer AG faces a protracted legal battle over the U.S. company’s Roundup weed killer -- a prospect that wiped more than $11 billion off the German conglomerate’s market value.
Monsanto’s six week trial which began June 22 with jury selection in San Francisco Superior Court has been a parade of mostly dark days for the chemical titan.
Tuesday, July 31, was a relatively bright oasis for Monsanto and by far its best showing so far in the dramatic Johnson vs. Monsanto trial. Monsanto’s attorneys called Dr. Lorelei Mucci, a cancer epidemiologist and associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).
Despite its impressive name, the HSPH has earned an unsavory reputation for taking rich contributions from polluters in exchange for producing scientific “research” that fortifies corporate profit-taking. Big Tobacco, the chemical industry, Detroit automakers, corporate food processors, and industrial meat and grain barons have all turned to HSPH for corporate-friendly science anointed with the imprimatur of the Harvard name.
On Friday, July 29, Dr. Charles Benbrook took the stand, the last witness to testify on behalf of the plaintiff
Wednesday, July 25—Day 11 of the Monsanto trial—seemed a dark day for the Plaintiff.
With the jury off duty, Judge Bolanos heard a parade of evidentiary motions and made a series of surprising and disappointing rulings in Monsanto’s favor for each one.
First, Plaintiff’s counsel lead by Brent Wisner, sought to exclude evidence that our side’s exposure expert, Dr. William Sawyer, occasionally used Roundup himself. Wisner and his colleague, Tim Litzenburg, pointed out that in the tobacco context, the courts have consistently held that an expert witness’s cigarette use is irrelevant. The court indicated its inclination to ignore this precedent.
On Monday morning, July 23, the jury in Johnson vs. Monsanto heard testimony from Dr. Ope Ofodile, the Plaintiff Dewayne “Lee” Johnson’s dermatologist. Dr. Ofodile described beginning her treatment of Lee in 2014, shortly after Lee was diagnosed with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Her affection for Lee and her passionate devotion to his treatment was evidenced throughout her surprisingly moving testimony; she even wrote to Lee’s employer, the Benicia District School Board, on Lee’s behalf and “requested that he not be exposed to [Roundup] as that could exacerbate his condition.”
Thanks to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for providing a first-hand account of the sixth day in court in the Dewayne
Thanks to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for providing a recap of the fourth and fifth day in court in the
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pesticide office continues to side with Monsanto’s interests to protect glyphosate-based herbicide products like Roundup.
Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, is the most-used agricultural chemical ever. Mounting scientific evidence of its human health impacts indicates that it may also be the most devastating.
Global campaign movement Avaaz has been served with a 168-page subpoena demanding almost a decade’s worth of internal campaign communications and member data be turned over to Monsanto. Avaaz, with 46-million members around the world, has been part of the movement to regulate glyphosate from the US to the European Union – glyphosate is the cornerstone chemical in Monsanto’s $50 billion empire. Avaaz’s members have voted to fight the subpoena.
Glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, is the most widely used herbicide in the world. Studies by independent scientists show that at the levels commonly found in the environment, on our food and in our bodies—levels that are lower than those allowed by regulatory agencies on our food—glyphosate causes a wide range of diseases and birth defects.
If you’re a fan of the classic Ben & Jerry’s ice cream line, you’re in for a treat. A survey conducted by the Health Research Institute (HRI) laboratories found traces of glyphosate in 13 out of the 14 tubs of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream sampled in the UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.