Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer
2 billion, with a ‘B’. When I read the headline the other day I didn’t actually believe it and by the time the lawyers get done with the appeals process both of the award winners will be pining for the fjords, but the fact remains and the connection has been made. Glyphosate is the root cause of numerous human health issues because it remains in the foods that are processed and eaten by large swaths of the American public. I absolutely believe that eventually the modern obesity crisis will be linked with glyphosate toxicity in the human body. Not such good news for those affected who haven’t won an enormous court ordered verdict, but confirmation to those who could easily see that a product used to eradicate life isn’t such a good thing to eat.
Monsanto must pay couple $2bn in largest verdict yet over cancer claims
California jury holds makers of Roundup weedkiller responsible for couple contracting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
A California jury has ordered Monsanto to pay more than $2bn to a couple that got cancer after using its weedkiller, marking the third and largest verdict against the company over Roundup.
A jury in Oakland ruled Monday that Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, was liable for the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) cancer of Alva and Alberta Pilliod. The jury ordered the company to pay $1bn in damages to each of them, and more than $55m total in compensatory damages.
The victory for the Pilliods follows two consecutive trial wins for families taking on Monsanto over Roundup, the world’s most widely used weedkiller, which research has linked to NHL, a cancer that affects the immune system. Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper with terminal cancer, won a $289m victory in state court last year, and Edwin Hardeman, who sprayed Roundup on his properties, was awarded $80m in the first federal trial this year.
The latest verdict is the largest by far and will increase pressure on Bayer, which has suffered share price drops in the wake of the verdicts and is now facing similar lawsuits from thousands of cancer patients, survivors and families who lost loved ones to NHL.
The juries have repeatedly ruled that Roundup was defectively designed, that the company failed to warn consumers about the cancer risks, and that Monsanto has acted negligently. The cases have uncovered internal Monsanto documents that plaintiffs’ lawyers say reveal the ways in which the company has “bullied” scientists over the years and helped “ghostwrite” research defending the safety of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup.
Bayer and Monsanto have continued to argue that Roundup is safe to use and does not cause cancer. They are appealing the verdicts.
“Monsanto has never had any interest in finding out whether Roundup is safe,” R Brent Wisner, one of the Pilliods’ attorneys, said in a statement after the verdict. “Instead of investing in sound science, they invested millions in attacking science that threatened their business agenda.”
The Pilliods, who are in their 70s and live in Livermore, 40 miles east of San Francisco, used Roundup for more than 30 years to landscape their home and other properties. In 2011, Alva was diagnosed with systemic NHL in his bones, which spread to his pelvis and spine, and Alberta was diagnosed with NHL brain cancer in 2015. Both are in remission but testified about lasting damage from the cancer.
Michael Miller, another attorney for the couple, noted that the judge in this case permitted the legal team to present significant evidence about Monsanto’s conduct, in contrast to previous trials, where evidence was severely limited.
“We were finally allowed to show a jury the mountain of evidence showing Monsanto’s manipulation of science, the media and regulatory agencies to forward their own agenda despite Roundup’s severe harm to the animal kingdom and humankind,” he said in a statement.
Bayer said it was “disappointed” in the decision and would appeal. The company cited the continuing approval of glyphosate by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and “the consensus among leading health regulators worldwide that glyphosate-based products can be used safely and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic, and the 40 years of extensive scientific research on which their favorable conclusions are based”.
Internal documents uncovered in the trials have repeatedly shone a harsh light on Monsanto’s close relationship with US regulators. The lawsuits began piling up after a key 2015 ruling by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, which said glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys estimate that there are now 13,400 similar Roundup cancer cases pending in state and federal courts in the US.
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I see the discussion starting to “heat up”, finally. This topic has gone unheeded for too long. The Bee Keepers were seeing a strong suggestion of this association at least 15 years ago. They were feeding “high fructose” corn syrup to their bees while being transported for pollination purposes. They started to see “colony collapse” issues and have solved the problem by creating “more queens”. It was about the same time that we, in the Medical Profession, started to see a serious uptick in “peanut allergies” (the first of the GMO seeds, and “Roundup” resistant, which means the plant could absorb Roundup, glyphosate, without being killed) along with the start of an increase in “Autistic children” (that rate has continued to increase until now it is in excess of 2%). A huge number of farm crops are exposed to glyphosate through the GMO seed use or the use of the herbicide just before harvest of small grains (not yet established as a GMO seed). The developing “Human Embryo” is very fragile and may very well be in the process of being exposed to glyphosates through the food chain. When do we start to look?
There are no GMO roundup-resistant peanuts. Sorry
http://www.roundupreadyplus.com/products/peanuts
that’s a totally different chemical then glysophate, but I’ll give you the win because the principal is the same batshit crazy one as Roundup. Spraying herbicides on plants that you’re going to be eating. I didn’t know they had one for peanuts.
I’ve been feeding peanuts to a family of jays, successive couples, for 5 generations. Cushed and in the shell, the cheapest I can find, unsalted.
The first male/female couple were fiercely protective of their peanut stash on my patio table. They instantly chased every bird away that got near. Each successive generation became less protective of their food pile, even in winter. Now, the Jays startle and fly when a sparrow lands close.
I’m convinced this is happening to our children also.
In addition to glyphosate being sprayed on small grains (wheat, oats, etc.) just before harvest as a “drying agent” (i.e. make sure the grains are good and dead before harvesting them) it is also sprayed on legumes (peas, beans, lentils, etc.) and other crops for the same reason. You can buy organic to try to avoid it, but glyphosate is so ubiquitous traces of it show up even in organic foods. Buying “non-GMO” foods doesn’t help because glyphosate is a poison, not a GMO.
From the last link:
“In one email unsealed Tuesday, William F. Heydens, a Monsanto executive, told other company officials that they could ghostwrite research on glyphosate by hiring academics to put their names on papers that were actually written by Monsanto. “We would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names so to speak,” Mr. Heydens wrote, citing a previous instance in which he said the company had done this.”
I think it’s fair to call cancer an epidemic. Glyphosate probably isn’t the only reason but it’s found in so many food products that it has to be a very large contributor.
I think Satan has one of his minions running that company. I hope it goes down.
But but but, corporations have a duty only to their shareholders!!!!
This is bullshit!!!
Sarc
There is a whole separate list of rules for corporations in the US Code.
‘Restricted Class’ Communications
Perhaps the most important political tool available to corporations is the least understood and most underused. A corporation may use corporate treasury funds to communicate with its so-called restricted class of employees and shareholders “on any subject.” [[[Grasping that the Corporate Entity has been discovered to have the same rights to POLITICAL SPEECH ($$$) as the citizen by the US Supreme Court will help you understand perhaps. It also tells me why US Senators no longer wanted to be elected by their own State Legislators around the same time. Show Me the Money, they said! And that’s when some of them gave up their sacred honor and became congresscritters.
Trade Associations
Trade associations may also communicate with their members, subject, of course, to certain restrictions.
I deleted three paragraphs to summarize: Trade associations got a little jealous of the Lawyer Old Boys’ network of Congress and decided they needed to form groups to wield a bit of political power.
Labor Unions
The FEC has repeatedly condoned labor unions’ restricted-class communications that were closely coordinated with their preferred candidates or with the Democratic Party.
Tammany Hall? Shit, anybody ever hear of a guy from Missouri named Harry Truman? Dirty GOP politics in Kansas City then and now, let me tell you.
Legal history is fascinating. But, you need good solid DATA not just someone’s opinion. Otherwise the lawyers win. I never let the lawyers win. I can show you a formal reprimand for one in Oklahoma from the Oklahoma Bar Association. Yes I can, Yes I can. I wrote the complaint myself.
This link here is one people should save. You can search almost any legal topic quickly and find valid SOURCE data.
https://corporate.findlaw.com/law-library.html
“Dirty GOP politics in Kansas City”
Truman was a Democrat and Tom Pendergast was his mentor.
Here in the U.K. we’re about to ban slug pellets that kill….slugs. But Roundup is still widely available.
Excellent, HSF – thank you for spreading this GREAT news! And here is some more to go with it:
https://www.ft.com/content/68c0ca92-6867-11e9-9adc-98bf1d35a056
My only worry is that .gov will interfere/intervene and say “The EPA says its safe . . .” and thereby put a stop to the lawsuits. Idk if they even could injunct these proceedings, but at the rate things are going, glyphosate is going to be too politically/fiscally dangerous for anyone to manufacture/use.
YAY!
Monsanto “must pay 2 billion”. Bullshit. Never going to happen. Never.
It will be reduced at a minimum, but more likely thrown out entirely.
It is impossible to prove that any chemical is the absolute cause of any given cancer. Which is why tobacco is still sold. There are probabilities, but absolute proof in individual cases is impossible.
It will be tossed on appeal.
“It is impossible to prove that any chemical is the absolute cause of any given cancer. Which is why tobacco is still sold. There are probabilities, but absolute proof in individual cases is impossible.”
If that is the threshold for coming to a conclusion, then virtually nothing can be proven in any case ever. Sometimes common sense should prevail.
All this judgement demonstrates is that a jury can be shown that there is a connection between a product designed to kill living things and our constant diet of products treated with that toxic agent.
All the rest of it is just window dressing.
Fans of Hardscrabble Farmer may enjoy this interview with Farmgal, who lives the farming life up in the Great Whte North of Canada.
RE
Glycophosphate is used as a desiccant as well. When applied as such it is applied right before harvest.
Our bodies confuse it with glycine, and use it in replace of.
2 Billion for 2 people seems…obscene, especially old people. It’s hard to identify the real geopolitical currents, especially with the Bayer merger.
Stucky did a superior Monsanto article years back that had a luke warm reception. I dont know how to find it.
Sometimes I can find what I am looking for in the search box in the upper right and sometimes I can’t.
Is that the one?
Lukewarm? 14 comments. I would say that it was mostly ignored. This is how it rolls sometimes. Something that in depth and probably time consuming for Stucky gets 14 comments.
Good job finding and Thx for linking it here again, Mary.
I plan to dive into that deeper, when time allows.
Love the older posts.
At the risk of appearing to kiss ass, I like SiNJ’s extraordinary research talent, and his reporting of it so concisely.
I’ve saved to file more than one of his submissions, for sure.
I’d bet the comment count on the heels of that original post would spike higher, if reposted as a stand alone, which gathers more eyes than when buried in a great comment like yours here.
I just had time to skim it. I plan to read it in depth this evening. I’m pretty sure I read it the first time but I was a lurker then. I never commented.
Thanks much for finding it for me, after reading it again I am just as impressed with the quality of Stuckys work as I was then.
Fuckin home run!!!
The award wasn’t based on what was a fair economic figure for the lives of two old people, it was a punitive measure meant to teach corporations that if they engage in deliberate acts of malfeasance and duplicity that they know will cause death, then they should be adequately punished. A company that generates close to 50 billion dollars a year is not going to be affected by a multi-million dollars settlement.
Ironically the day after the verdict was rendered, before they paid out a single dollar, their stock value fell by 2 billion. That’s the kind of punishment that resonates.
If Roundup was such a harmless product, why do you think Monsanto sold out to Bayer? They knew where this was going, the discovery proved it and the trial confirmed it so they tried to get out from under it by going to a company that had plenty of experience in dealing with the blowback of having been involved with policies that result in the death of innocent human beings. Think about this for a second; anyone who has less than a favorable view of the current political system in America is tagged as a Nazi, but Bayer actually were Nazis and today they’re doing billions of dollars in business with nary a peep from anyone, anywhere. That’s how powerful money is.
If that doesn’t help you to understand how things work, nothing will.
I think I read the Bayer is ousting their CEO over acquiring Monsanto and the Roundup liability.
I get the punative angle, but when one considers all affected, how will there be enough justice?
I am aware of all points you made concerning Bayer. The timing and nationality point to large geopolitical moves, same, I assume with VW. Obviously nobody gives a shit how many people Bayer has exterminated, they care about future positioning in The Great Game.
Thank goodness this topic is being discussed. Glyphosates were registered as antibiotics and they act as antibiotics, killing gut microbiota. Most gut diseases can be linked to antibiotic overuse and compounding that with the affects of glyphosate is creating an epidemic of illness. Gluten free should read glyphosate free.
thank you again for bringing up the topic.
My husband and I were talking about all the evils of bureaucracy yesterday while visiting the Veterans Hospital yesterday. I had to sign several forms to “allow” the Veterans Administration to stop paying me a 100% service-connected disability check for my recent extensive surgery to repair a surgery from 20-someodd years ago.
Apparently, the 100% disability rating is the Mecca of all Entitlements and No One grasps that taking that bait is exactly how the rest of the folks who once held Sacred Honor lost theirs.
The Nutrition Counselor and I developed a plan to help me regain some muscle mass as well as restore my metabolic balance after deep tissue necrosis following a wound vacuum failure. And in order to do that, I can’t exactly be 100% disabled, can I?
Anyway, I’m trying to close out the “Temporary” Disabled Label one has to assume in order to have the Veterans Administration pay for an emergency surgery at 3 a.m. in St. Louis. Which they did, which must indeed mean I am a service-connected Honorably Discharged Veteran of the US Armed Forces.
Sacred Honor. It is hard to keep when the bait is so tempting.
So, I told the Nutrition Counselor I believe I have developed a serious allergy to refined sugar. She closed the door and told me what the VA knows about this obesity business and MEDICINES.
People like to talk to me sometimes. Other times not.
Come on, what did she tell you?
Yes, what did she tell you? I have profound suspicions and would like verification.
My No 1 Pet Peeve, Glyphosate and GMO hybrids designed to tolerate it.
How I am affected personally is compounded by my despair over what it is doing to the environment and everyone – even those who carefully avoid it. It’s everywhere now.
It’s an endocrine disrupter, microbe killer, bee colony collapser, and broad-spectrum insect/bird denier that destroys vast ecosystems. If the entire world disarmed today, it would be the greatest threat to our entire biosphere and its carrying capacity for all forms of life.
But one had to pay attention in their High School Biology and Chemistry classes (if elected) to even have a faint idea of what a huge threat this problem is today and for a long time to come.
O’bombus sent Monsanto lobbyists as his European and Pacific negotiators for the ‘Top Secret’ TPP & TTIP. Selling what, exactly?
But I’ll be damned if the gravest threat to mankind is the weather changing tomorrow.