John,
Glyphosate, the main active ingredient of agricultural Roundup, is a probable human carcinogen -- but Congress is poised to make it far more difficult to sue Bayer when its products hurt people.1
Bayer, Roundup's manufacturer, has lost several high-profile court cases to plaintiffs who claimed the pesticide caused their cancer.2 It's costing the company a lot of money -- which is probably why it's lobbying Congress to pass legislation that will shield it from further lawsuits.3
Our lives are worth more than any company's bottom line. Bayer shouldn't be allowed to slip this clause into the must-pass farm bill.
As of May 2022, Monsanto -- the original manufacturer of Roundup -- has paid out more than $11 billion in more than 100,000 lawsuits filed by people who claim the pesticide caused their cancer.4
But instead of simply working to ensure and prove that its product is completely safe, the company is trying to prevent people affected by Roundup from suing them in the future.
The farm bill is a must-pass piece of legislation adopted by Congress every five years to maintain federal agriculture programs. Bayer's tiny addition to this bill could have a huge impact on peoples' ability to hold the company accountable for the health impacts of its pesticides.
Roundup is just too risky.
Bayer reformulated the herbicides it sells for residential use to remove glyphosate but its agricultural product still contains glyphosate and gets sprayed on millions of acres of farmland every year.
Plus, glyphosate isn't the only ingredient in Bayer's weed-killing cocktail. There's no guarantee that the entire mixture is safe, whether it contains glyphosate or not. Even the lead toxicologist working for Monsanto (Roundup's original manufacturer) said "we have not done the necessary testing on the formulation" to confirm that Roundup is not a carcinogen.5
That's why it would be ridiculous to allow Bayer to shield itself from lawsuits this way. People whose health has been impacted by Roundup deserve to be able to take the company to court.
Send your message to your US senators today.
Thank you,
Faye Park
President
1. "IARC Monograph on Glyphosate," International Agency for Research on Cancer, last accessed June 28, 2024.
2. Mari Gaines, "Roundup Lawsuit Update," Forbes, February 2, 2024.
3. Tony Romm, "Bayer lobbies Congress to help fight lawsuits tying Roundup to cancer," The Washington Post, June 20, 2024.
4. Mari Gaines, "Roundup Lawsuit Update July 2023," Forbes, May 23, 2023.
5. "Declassifying Monsanto's Secret Documents," Wisner Baum, last accessed June 28, 2024.
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