Bayer and Monsanto had a busy few months in litigation, including refusing to review a Roundup settlement, a new trial and arguing Mexico’s ban on GMO corn.
Santa Clara, CAThe last few months have been busy for Bayer and Monsanto’s legal team and Roundup lawsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a $39 million Roundup settlement regarding cancer warnings on Roundup; the latest Roundup cancer trial is underway in Missouri and south of the border; and a U.S. dispute settlement panel challenges Mexico’s plans to ban GMO corn.
$39 Settlement
The $39 million settlement covers just one of several Roundup class action lawsuits filed by various consumer groups seeking damages, even if they haven't been diagnosed with any specific injury.
This is the third time the Supreme Court has declined to review a Roundup decision. Monsanto’s attorney objected to the settlement because $14 to $16 million of the award would go to consumer non-profit groups and a university that were not injured by the company's alleged misconduct, reported Reuters.
Missouri Roundup Trial
On September 13, opening statements in the latest trial accusing Monsanto that its Roundup causes cancer took place in Missouri state court, and the proceedings are being webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Mark McCostlin alleges he developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2017. At first McCostlin and his wife didn’t connect Roundup with his cancer, until he sought legal help in 2019 and learned about the link between glyphosate exposure and this type of cancer. His lawsuit claims, like countless others, that Bayer-owned Monsanto knew about this link but chose not to disclose the Roundup cancer risk to the public. Instead, it chose not to harm its sales of the herbicide.
Monsanto continues to deny any link between glyphosate exposure and cancer. This strategy has worked for Monsanto in seven consecutive prior Roundup trials.The current trial in St. Louis County before Judge Brian May is captioned Barbara Allegrezza, et al. v. Monsanto Company, case number 19SL-CC03421 in Missouri’s 21st Judicial Circuit.
Mexico’s GMO and Roundup Ban
In response to Mexico banning imported genetically modified corn, and with it glyphosate – the herbicide in Roundup—the U.S. Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has set up a new dispute settlement panel. Its intention is to challenge Mexico’s “unscientific ban of American agricultural products”, announced House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo, arguing that the country’s health concerns were not based on science. The U.S. argued that Mexico “threatened to risk billions of dollars in agricultural trade, food security, and efforts to tackle the climate crisis,” reported Law360. And taking that argument one inane step further, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said, “It is critical that Mexico eliminate its USMCA-inconsistent biotechnology measures so that American farmers can continue to access the Mexican market and use innovative tools to respond to climate and food security challenges.” Her statement begs the question: How can a carcinogenic herbicide can help climate and food security?
In December 2020, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a full ban on GMO corn imports. By February, however, the Mexican government backed down somewhat to allow U.S. modified corn for animal feed and industrial processes. Mexico, like many other countries, has held its position on banning imports of glyphosate, and therefore Roundup.
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