House farm bill would shield Bayer from Roundup lawsuits

Tucked into the horticulture section of the farm bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee is language shielding seed and ag chemical giant Bayer from lawsuits against its Roundup weedkiller. Section 10204, running one-and-a-half pages, amounts to a “Get out of jail free” card for pesticide companies, according to an avowed guardian of victims’ rights.

The provision “to require uniformity in national pesticide labeling” would block states from writing their own warning labels for pesticides and says courts could not hold manufacturers liable for damages if they put only EPA-approved labels on their packages. The EPA says glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, is safe to use.

“When American farmers develop cancer from dangerous and deadly chemicals, they should be able to hold the mega-corporations who sold those chemicals responsible,” said the American Association for Justice, which says it protects victims’ rights, when the House committee approved the bill. The farm bill would override state and local health protections, it said.

Section 10204 was “drafted with the aid of Bayer,” said the Washington Post. A Bayer spokeswoman said glyphosate is safe and the provision was not “a shield at all…This is going to have to play out in the courts.”

Bayer has spent billions of dollars to resolve lawsuits that allege Roundup caused cancer in thousands of people. A UN agency said in 2015 that glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic.” European regulators disagreed and decided in 2017 to keep glyphosate in use.

Besides working in Washington, Bayer pursued shield legislation unsuccessfully in the Iowa, Missouri and Idaho state legislatures this spring.

Text of the committee-approved farm bill is available here. Section 10204 begins on page 798.