German chemical giant Bayer is seeking protection in the latest farm bill from lawsuits involving its Roundup weedkiller, according to a report by WVPE and Harvest Public Media.
The biotech company is lobbying Congress to pass legislation that could protect it from thousands of lawsuits alleging that the product causes cancer, the 18 July report said.
A draft of the upcoming farm bill includes language that would make it harder for farmers and others to claim in court that they were not sufficiently warned of the potential dangers associated with prolonged use of the weedkiller’s main ingredient, glyphosate.
According to a Washington Post report, the provision was drafted by lawyers with the help of Bayer and seeks to create uniformity on national pesticide labelling and to prevent individual states from making their own warnings.
It would also stop courts from penalising or holding companies like Bayer liable if their products only included labels that had previously been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), WVPE and Harvest Public Media report said.
Jess Christiansen, the head of crop science and sustainability communications for Bayer, was quoted as saying the company was seeking that protection as Roundup had gone through adequate testing by the EPA and had been proven safe.
Bayer, which acquired Roundup as part of its US$63bn acquisition of US agrochemical company Monsanto in 2018, has repeatedly said that decades of studies had shown the product and its active ingredient, glyphosate, were safe for human use.
Earlier this year, Bayer sought similar legislation in several states, including Missouri and Iowa, the report said. Lawyers in those states introduced bills that would have made the EPA-approved labels on Roundup a sufficient warning for consumers, preventing some future litigation.
The company also launched the Control Weeds Not Farming campaign through the Modern Ag Alliance, a coalition of more than 75 agriculture groups, to promote the passage of the bills in each legislature.
However, the bills had failed to pass during their respective legislative sessions, WVPE and Harvest Public Media wrote.
Meanwhile, Bayer’s moves were opposed by some organisations, such as the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
“It is evident that Missourians and our state legislators don’t believe that this type of immunity from litigation for agricultural chemical manufacturers should be given,” organisation’s policy director Melissa Vatterott was quoted as saying.
Supporters of the legislation say that Roundup is a necessity for farmers throughout the Midwest and the country.
The current farm bill expires on 30 September and the House has yet to vote on the proposed version.
Bayer’s spokesperson Christiansen was quoted as saying the company would continue to work with lawmakers regarding labelling of Roundup.
