Monsanto NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Monsanto Sat, 15 May 2021 05:00:53 +0000 https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Corinne Ruff CAPE GIRARDEAU — A federal jury in the first dicamba-related lawsuit to go to trial determined Saturday that Monsanto and BASF should pay $250 million in punitive damages. That’s more than the $200 million suggested by lawyers working for the plaintiff, Bader Farms. Missouri’s largest peach producer, owned by Bill and Denise Bader, sued the ag giants for causing extensive dicamba damage to its orchards. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/monsanto-basf-will-pay-250-million-punitive-damages-first-dicamba-trial 830 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 17 Feb 2020 12:11:54 +0000 Monsanto, BASF Will Pay $250 Million In Punitive Damages In First Dicamba Trial Jonathan Ahl A company that makes dicamba-resistant soybeans and cotton wants to expand use of the controversial weed killer to corn. But critics and experts questioning the logic of the petition. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/bayer-looking-expand-dicamba-use-corn-despite-lawsuit-drift-damage 694 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 03 Apr 2019 22:49:28 +0000 Bayer Looking To Expand Dicamba Use To Corn Despite Lawsuit, Drift Damage Eli Chen A federal jury in San Francisco has unanimously decided that Bayer AG’s weed killer Roundup caused a California resident to develop cancer. Edwin Hardeman alleged in his suit that using the herbicide over three decades on his properties caused him to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that affects the immune system. His lawsuit is the first federal court case against Bayer’s Roundup and could predict the outcome of hundreds of cases that the company faces for similar claims. Bayer bought St. Louis-based Monsanto, maker of Roundup, last year. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/federal-jury-finds-bayers-roundup-weed-killer-caused-california-man-s-cancer 687 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 20 Mar 2019 02:52:33 +0000 Federal Jury Finds Bayer's Roundup Weed Killer Caused A California Man’s Cancer Dan Charles Mike Hayes and I are sitting on the patio of Blue Bank Resort , the business he owns on Reelfoot Lake, in Tennessee. The sun is going down. It's beautiful. What really catches your eye here is the cypress trees. They line the lake, and thousands of them are standing right in the water. Hayes tells me that they are more than 200 years old. They were here in 1812, when the lake was formed: A cataclysmic earthquake shook this area, the land dropped, and water from the Mississippi River rushed in and covered 15,000 acres of cypress forest. Yet these trees survived and became a home for fish and birds. "The fishing's around the tree; the eagles nest in the tree, the egrets. So much wildlife all out in the trees," he says. "The trees define Reelfoot Lake." Mike Hayes owns Blue Bank Resort. His great-grandfather began taking visitors on tours of the lake in the 1880s. Dan Charles/NPR Last year, though, Hayes noticed that the trees didn't look right. Their needles were turning brown. Some were https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/drifting-weedkiller-puts-prized-trees-risk 595 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Fri, 28 Sep 2018 17:13:24 +0000 A Drifting Weedkiller Puts Prized Trees At Risk Madelyn Beck Farmers in a federal class-action lawsuit filed two main complaints this week against agro-chemical giants Monsanto and BASF regarding the herbicide dicamba, which is blamed for millions of acres of crop damage, especially to soybeans, over the last couple years. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/federal-suit-alleges-companies-knew-dicamba-would-drift-monsanto-created-monopoly 565 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 02 Aug 2018 22:45:38 +0000 Federal Suit Alleges Companies Knew Dicamba Would Drift, Monsanto Created Monopoly Bill Chappell Writing that "a reasonable jury could conclude" that the herbicide in Monsanto's Roundup can cause a form of cancer, a federal judge says liability lawsuits against the company should proceed, siding with plaintiffs against an effort to quash the litigation. But the judge also said some of the expert opinions presented so far in the case are "shaky." The lawsuits allege that glyphosate, the herbicide in the widely used Roundup, can cause non-Hodgkin's lymphoma — and that Monsanto didn't warn consumers or regulators about that alleged risk. Claims against Monsanto received a boost in 2015 , when the International Agency for Research on Cancer – part of the World Health Organization — announced that two pesticides, including glyphosate, are "probably carcinogenic to humans." Monsanto is now facing hundreds of lawsuits, many of which were filed after that 2015 announcement. Dozens of the suits were joined to be heard in the court of U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria – who, even as he https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/monsanto-lawsuit-over-cancer-claims-can-proceed-federal-judge-rules 549 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 12 Jul 2018 13:51:18 +0000 Monsanto Lawsuit Over Cancer Claims Can Proceed, Federal Judge Rules Wayne Pratt Monsanto, a company based in St. Louis for more than 100 years, is now part of Bayer. The roughly $63-billion acquisition closed Thursday, nearly two years after the companies first announced the deal. Regulators in Canada and Mexico were among the last international watchdogs to approve the combination. The U.S. Department of Justice signed off on it late last month after Bayer committed to shedding about $9 billion in several areas to chemical giant BASF. That includes Bayer's Liberty-brand herbicides, which compete with Monsanto's Roundup. St. Louis Public Radios Wayne Pratt examines the local impact of the Bayer-Monsanto combination. The German company announced this week that the Monsanto name will be retired once the deals involving BASF are complete. "We simply had a strong belief that the Bayer brand has a very strong, positive recognition, simply based on brand audits that we've done worldwide," Bayer Crop Science Division President Liam Condon told reporters during a https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/bayer-completes-monsanto-acquisition 527 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 07 Jun 2018 15:36:27 +0000 Bayer completes Monsanto acquisition Camila Domonoske Originally, it was just a name — Olga Monsanto's name, to be precise. Around the turn of the 20th century, she married a man named John Francis Queeny. He named his artificial sweetener company after her . And over decades, that company expanded from the sweetness business into agri-chemicals, where it began to dominate the industry. These days Monsanto is shorthand for, as NPR's Dan Charles has put it, "lots of things that some people love to hate": Genetically modified crops, which Monsanto invented. Seed patents, which Monsanto has fought to defend. Herbicides such as Monsanto's Roundup, which protesters have sharply criticized for its possible health risks . Big agriculture in general, of which Monsanto was the reviled figurehead. And soon Monsanto will be no more. Bayer, the German pharmaceutical giant and pesticide powerhouse, announced in 2016 it would be buying Monsanto in an all-cash deal for more than $60 billion. Now, as the merger approaches, Bayer has confirmed what many https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/monsanto-no-more-agri-chemical-giants-name-dropped-bayer-acquisition 524 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 04 Jun 2018 19:37:30 +0000 Monsanto No More: Agri-Chemical Giant's Name Dropped In Bayer Acquisition Erica Hunzinger Lawsuits filed in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri against the makers of the herbicide dicamba will be centralized in the federal court in St. Louis. The Associated Press reports that the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Ligitation decided Thursday to centralize the 11 cases, which allege the herbicide caused significant damage to soybean crops. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/11-dicamba-damage-lawsuits-be-consolidated-federal-court-st-louis 443 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Fri, 02 Feb 2018 17:35:01 +0000 11 Dicamba-Damage Lawsuits To Be Consolidated In Federal Court In St. Louis Jeremy Bernfeld Regulators in Arkansas have proposed to effectively ban farmers from using a controversial weedkiller produced by Monsanto that is thought to be destroying crops after drifting in the wind. The Arkansas State Plant Board proposed a ban on using the herbicide dicamba on cotton and soybeans from April 16 to October 31, essentially the entire growing season. ( PDF ) Thousands of farmers all over the country have complained of crop damage from dicamba. Estimates put the area damaged at more than 3 million acres nationwide. Farmers spray dicamba to kill weeds. Some varieties of soybeans and cotton are genetically engineered to withstand the chemical. Dicamba, though, is suspected of drifting in the wind onto neighboring farms in the range of crops not genetically engineered to withstand doses of the weedkiller, causing widespread damage. Though the herbicide has been in use for decades, a new chemical formulation and new usage patterns may to be blame for the damage . Monsanto, however, https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/arkansas-poised-ban-dicamba-weedkiller 375 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Sun, 24 Sep 2017 09:45:00 +0000 Arkansas Poised To Ban Dicamba Weedkiller Kristofor Husted The herbicide dicamba is thought to have been the culprit in more than 3 million acres of damaged soybeans across the country, destroying plants and leaving farmers out millions of dollars in crops. The chemical has been in use for decades, so why is it today apparently causing farms so much damage ? The answer is two-pronged, according to Kevin Bradley, a University of Missouri assistant professor and weed specialist who has studied the reported damage. Here’s what he says: Reason 1: Farmers Are Spraying More In recent years, many farmers used glyphosate -- the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup produced by agribusiness giant Monsanto -- to destroy pesky weeds like palmer amaranth, or pigweed. About 90 percent of soybean plants, corn and cotton grown in the U.S. are genetically modified to withstand at least one herbicide, so that when farmers spray the fields, the weeds die and the crops survive. Roundup, in particular, grew popular. Eventually, many pigweed plants grew https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/dicamba-has-been-around-years-why-would-it-now-be-causing-problems 366 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 07 Sep 2017 21:12:51 +0000 Dicamba Has Been Around For Years. Why Would It Now Be Causing Problems? Kristofor Husted Hundreds of Midwest farmers are complaining of damage to their crops allegedly caused by the herbicide dicamba. The total number of damaged acres may come to more than 2.5 million acres, according to data compiled by a University of Missouri researcher . Most of the damage has been found in the Midwest and South, with complaints of more than 850,000 damaged acres in Arkansas and more than 300,000 damaged acres in both Missouri and Illinois. Farmers spray dicamba to kill weeds and some varieties of soybeans are genetically engineered to withstand the chemical. Dicamba, though, is suspected of drifting in the wind to neighboring farms and causing widespread damage. University of Missouri weed specialist and assistant professor Kevin Bradley surveyed state agriculture departments, extension offices, pesticide applicators and others to get a grasp of the magnitude of the problem. He found more than 1,400 dicamba-related complaints have been filed with state regulators across the country. https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/dicamba-damage-estimate-tops-25-million-acres 343 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 26 Jul 2017 21:13:40 +0000 Dicamba Damage Estimate Tops 2.5 Million Acres Kristofor Husted The Missouri Department of Agriculture announced a temporary ban on the sale of agricultural products containing the pesticide dicamba on Friday, following a similar step by regulators in Arkansas . Dicamba, a popular weedkiller, is suspected in the damage of tens of thousands of farm acres primarily in Arkansas, but also in southeast Missouri and in neighboring states. After farmers sprayed the chemical on their fields -- sometimes with illegal and outdated versions -- the pesticide allegedly drifted over to neighboring farmland , destroying crops. More than 130 complaints about drift damage have been filed in Missouri this year, according to the state’s Agriculture Department. Missouri-based agrichemical giant Monsanto created soybean and cotton plants that were genetically engineered to tolerate dicamba, meaning farmers could plant these crops and spray their fields with the chemical, leaving weeds dead but their prized plants safe. The dicamba debate is especially important today, https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/arkansas-missouri-suspend-sales-controversial-pesticide-dicamba 338 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Fri, 07 Jul 2017 22:28:23 +0000 Arkansas, Missouri Suspend Sales Of Controversial Pesticide Dicamba Jeremy Bernfeld After court documents unsealed Tuesday raised questions about its research methods, chemical giant Monsanto says it did not ghostwrite a 2000 study on the safety of glyphosate, the active ingredient in its flagship pesticide Roundup. As the New York Times reported , the unsealed records suggest that Monsanto had contributed to research attributed to academics and that a senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had worked to stall a review of Roundup’s main ingredient by U.S. regulators. The documents are part of a lawsuit brought by people alleging they have developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a result of glyphosate exposure. In one of the released emails, Monsanto executive William F. Heydens told colleagues that they could write sections of research on glyphosate and hire researchers to serve as authors of the paper. “[The authors] would just edit & sign their names so to speak,” he wrote in the 2015 email, and suggested that they had employed this tactic in a https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/court-documents-raise-questions-roundup 221 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Wed, 15 Mar 2017 15:44:08 +0000 Court Documents Raise Questions Of Roundup Jeremy Bernfeld Shareholders of agricultural seed and chemical giant Monsanto agreed to a merger Tuesday, moving the controversial deal one-step closer to fruition. German drug and chemical maker Bayer plans to pay shareholders $66 billion to take over Missouri-based Monsanto. That breaks down to $128 per share if the merger closes. Already dominated by just a few large firms, the industry that sells seeds and chemicals to the world’s farmers could further consolidate in the coming months, as five of the six largest companies are pursuing deals that could leave a market dominated by just three behemoth, global companies. In addition to Bayer’s purchase of Monsanto, Dow and DuPont plan to merge and then spin off three related companies, and China National Chemical Company, often known as ChemChina, plans to purchase Syngenta. Industry consolidation has lead to worries by some consumer and environmental groups that these new companies will wield undue power over the global food system. The companies, https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/shareholders-missouris-monsanto-approve-merger-deal 73 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Tue, 13 Dec 2016 21:16:00 +0000 Shareholders Of Missouri's Monsanto Approve Merger Deal Grant Gerlock After dueling reviews of research studies, scientific panels from the U.S. government and the World Health Organization are having a hard time agreeing whether glyphosate, the most common weed killer in the United States, can cause cancer. Known by the brand name RoundUp, glyphosate is sprayed on farm fields and lawns all across the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing the safety of glyphosate for the first time since 1993. As part of its scheduled review, the agency examined dozens of glyphosate studies and decided that it is “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans at the doses relevant to human health.” Last year, however, IARC – the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organization – classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans." So why the discrepancy? One difference is in the evaluation of “risk.” The EPA puts an emphasis on deciding whether glyphosate is likely to cause cancer at normal https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/why-scientists-disagree-roundup-s-cancer-risk 79 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Tue, 15 Nov 2016 14:43:00 +0000 Why Scientists Disagree On RoundUp’s Cancer Risk Frank Morris Like most farmers, Mark Nelson, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat near Louisburg, Kansas, is getting squeezed. He’s paying three times more for seed than he used to, while his corn sells for less than half what it brought four years ago. “It’s a – that’s a challenge,” Nelson says. “You’re not going to be in the black, let’s put it that way.” Low commodity prices are rippling up and down the farm economy food chain from the farm to the boardroom, and it has many of the huge companies that control farm inputs looking to a new future. Most of the seeds and chemicals used to grow the world’s crops come from just a handful of big companies and the largest of those multi-national companies -- Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, and Syngenta -- are trying to get even bigger. The prospect of fewer, larger companies controlling so much of the basic food supply is giving some farmers and anti-trust advocates heartburn. With massive supplies of the world’s most important crops, like corn and soybeans, https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/face-uncertain-future-ag-industry-titans-pair 228 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Mon, 26 Sep 2016 19:39:05 +0000 In The Face Of An Uncertain Future, Ag Industry Titans Pair Up Amy Mayer St. Louis-based Monsanto, a world agribusiness leader, has agreed to be acquired by the German company Bayer. Bayer will pay $57 billion dollars, or $128 per share, in a deal that has been in the works since last spring. Regulators still must approve the move. Two other mergers are underway in the industry, with Dow set to combine with DuPont (already the owner of Iowa-based DuPont Pioneer) and ChemChina planning to buy the Swiss company Syngenta. For farmers confronting another season of massive production but low commodity prices, the prospect of fewer companies controlling the seed and inputs they rely upon can be daunting. “In the short term there are not going to be dramatic differences for farmers,” says Phil Howard of Michigan State University, who has studied consolidation in the agricultural arena. “But in the longer term, we’re going to find policy changes shaped by these bigger firms that are going to increase prices for farmers and consumers.” Howard says the remaining seed https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/post/monsanto-bayer-deal-could-increase-prices-us-farmers 104 as https://www.harvestpublicmedia.org Thu, 15 Sep 2016 17:33:00 +0000 Monsanto-Bayer Deal Could Increase Prices For US Farmers