The result? Roundup-resistant weeds, which led Bayer to peddle more of this weedkiller. The World Health Organization defines glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, as a probable carcinogen linked to a variety of health harms, including cancer. Food & Water Watch’s recent analysis finds that high glyphosate use is linked to high rates of non- Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. This has had heartbreaking consequences for gardeners, landscapers, and farmers. Bayer’s push to escape accountability Bayer purchased Monsanto, the original maker of Roundup,
in 2018 and has since spent over $11 billion settling over 100,000 pesticide-related cancer lawsuits. To protect its bottom line, Bayer went on the offensive. It spent millions lobbying state and federal lawmakers to push for Cancer Gag Act bills, legislation that would give pesticide corporations immunity from health-related litigation. Working together, we rallied against the Cancer Gag Act and successfully defeated it in Iowa, where agricultural pesticide use is highly concentrated. It failed in ten more states and was also excluded from the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill. So, Bayer took its poisonous cause to the Supreme Court. Monsanto Company v. Durnell John Durnell, a gardener in Missouri, sued Monsanto in state court in 2019, claiming that using Roundup for 20 years caused his non-Hodgkin
Above: Rain can’t stop people power! Despite wet weather, Senior Organizer Michaelyn Mankel (second from the left) and local activists gather in Des Moines, Iowa, for a rally to stop Bayer’s terrible Cancer Gag Act.
lymphoma, and there was no cancer warning on the prod- uct’s label to alert him of the danger. The jury awarded him over $1 million. Bayer appealed the case all the way up to the Trump-appointed Supreme Court. And in June, the Court sided with big business over people and the environment. The Court’s disastrous ruling prevents farmers, workers, and anyone affected from exercising their right to hold Bayer accountable for failing to warn them of health risks on labels, and blocks their ability to recover medical expenses, lost income, and other damages related to illnesses caused by its pesticides.
In Iowa, glyphosate blankets more than half the state. It’s one of only three states in the nation with rising cancer rates. Not-So-Fun Fact
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