The Supreme Court is poised to decide whether to take up a case involving weedkillers and cancer that could effectively curtail one of the largest waves of tort litigation in American history.
… Bayer is petitioning the court for a definitive ruling on whether federal law shields the company from thousands of lawsuits claiming that its widely-used weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.
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“The stakes could not be higher as the misapplication of federal law jeopardizes the availability of innovative tools for farmers and investments in the broader U.S. economy,” [said Bayer’s chief executive, Bill Anderson.]
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Formulated to be paired with genetically modified seeds, the pesticide allows GMO crops to grow unimpeded while killing most weeds. It has become the best-selling weedkiller in the world and a cornerstone of American food production.
The American Farm Bureau Federation said in a filing with the Supreme Court that glyphosate, Roundup’s active ingredient, was used on roughly 300 million acres of farmland growing cotton, soybeans, sugar beets and more. It warned that without glyphosate, food yields would “drop precipitously.”
