In a recent historical lawsuit and a groundbreaking decision, a jury in California has ordered the agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto to pay $289 million to Dewayne Lee Johnson, who has developed terminal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a result of using one of the company’s best selling products, Roundup weed-killer, at his job as a school groundskeeper. This case, which is the first lawsuit to go to trial claiming that Roundup causes cancer, has put in motion thousands of similar claims from farmers and land workers in the U.S. and beyond.
It has become less than breaking news that Monsanto’s agricultural products have lethal consequences for our planet and ourselves. From Food Inc. and The Future of Food to The World According to Monsanto and Bitter Seeds, countless documentaries have revealed the irreversible effects using Monsanto fertilisers have on the soil and its ecosystem and the company's unlawful agenda.
In an interview with Democracy Now, veteran investigative journalist and author of the book Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science, Carey Gillam said that Monsanto's “main selling point has been that it is so very safe, so much safer than any other herbicide out there, safe enough to convince our regulators to allow ever-increasingly higher levels of this pesticide.”
What is referred to by consumers as Roundup is scientifically called glyphosate, and in the U.S. alone numbers of its use have spiked from 20 million kilos in the 1990s to approximately 137 million kilos today. Globally this number is more than tenfold. Roundup weed-killer is a favourite among virtually all sectors, from groundskeepers like Johnson to farmers, and as a result of its excessive use, “evidence shows us it is very routinely found in our water, in our food, in our soil, in our air. U.S. scientists have even documented it coming down as rainfall.” Gillam adds.
So what does this decision mean? First of all, for 46-year-old father of three Dewayne Lee Johnson, currently dying of cancer, it does not mean a whole lot. Secondly, as Gillam notes in the interview “There are thousands of people around the United States who have already filed suit, thousands more who are waiting in the wings. Some farmworkers in Argentina have already tried to sue Monsanto. They’ve had trouble in U.S. courts bringing Monsanto to account for what they have alleged are birth effects in their children because of their exposure to glyphosate and Roundup. There are people in Europe who are similarly concerned and trying to move forward on litigation.” With Monsanto quickly reiterating that it plans to appeal the decision – stretching this historical event over years of high profile trials – court justice might not seem an easy route either.
What then does justice look like for thousands, potentially millions of people all over the world who have endured the lethal effects of Monsanto’s products on their health, their cropland and income, their children and potentially grandchildren too? How can justice be served to a company that has “specifically gone out of its way to bully … and to fight independent researchers,” as told during the trial by Johnson’s attorney Brent Wisner. “They fought science.”
Banning the use of glyphosate on an international level and holding the company accountable for its crimes is the only way to grant justice to our planet, ourselves and the generations to come.
Image: Taken from video interview by Democracy Now!