Bayer is the biggest seed and pesticide firm on the earth, as a result of its $63 billion Monsanto buy. The U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) permitted the merger in 2018, with Bayer CEO Werner Baumann stating on the time that the acquisition would additional their objective of making a number one agriculture firm, including, “We wish to assist farmers internationally develop extra nutritious meals in a extra sustainable method.”1
All has not remained rosy, nonetheless, as Monsanto got here together with a heavy legal responsibility, together with 13,400 lawsuits from individuals who declare publicity to their glyphosate-containing Roundup herbicide triggered them well being issues, together with most cancers. Already, Bayer’s been tagged with $158 million in damages, and that is simply the decision from two of the circumstances.
Now some are calling the takeover “disastrous,”2 a sentiment seemingly shared by most of the firm’s shareholders, greater than half of whom voted towards Baumann’s actions with a robust no-confidence vote.
Extra Than Half of Bayer Shareholders Vote Towards Administration
In a September 2018 interview with Bloomberg TV, Baumann defended the large Monsanto buy, at the same time as shares fell. “We’re as excited as we have now ever been concerning the mixture, and there are completely no regrets.”3 Quick ahead to seven months later to Bayer’s annual common assembly in Bonn, Germany, and 55.5% of shareholders voted towards ratifying the administration’s actions.4
The vote was symbolic in nature and will not legally change something, however stems largely from the corporate’s plummeting market worth on account of rising authorized battles over Roundup. The consensus was that changing the CEO would solely add to the chaos throughout an already perilous time.
“A hasty substitute of the CEO would solely improve the danger of a break-up and due to this fact cannot be within the curiosity of long-term oriented buyers … ,” prime Bayer shareholder Janne Werning stated.5 It has been a long time since a majority of shareholders have voted towards administration’s actions, and in 2015, a 39 p.c nonapproval vote towards Deutsche Financial institution AG co-CEO Anshu Jain led to him stepping down.6
This may not be the case for Baumann, who stated he “understands shareholders’ disappointment over the efficiency of Bayer shares for the reason that first glyphosate verdict in August 2018” and added that “authorized uncertainty has weighed on the share worth.”7
In response to the minority proportion of votes in favor of ratifying the actions of Bayer’s board of administration, the corporate’s supervisory board stated it could stand behind them, together with of their efforts to enchantment the trials regarding glyphosate.
“Whereas we take the result of the vote on the annual stockholders’ assembly very critically, Bayer’s supervisory board unanimously stands behind the board of administration,” Werner Wenning, chairman of the supervisory board, stated in a information launch.
“The end result of the vote … does nonetheless present that the annual stockholders’ assembly wished to ship a transparent sign to the board of administration that Bayer AG ought to convey out the corporate’s strengths to a larger extent sooner or later.”8
Buyers had complained that Bayer was not revealing sufficient about its technique for defeating upcoming lawsuits. Writing for Reuters Breakingviews, columnist Ed Cropley recommended Baumann may assist to quell their issues as follows:9
“An alternative choice can be to tweak Baumann’s pay to make sure his pursuits are aligned with shareholders. In 2018, his compensation was linked to the combination of the Monsanto deal and internet earnings, permitting him to take residence a 1.7 million euro [about $1.9 million] money bonus — greater than 2017 — and whole compensation of 5.3 million euros [about $5.9 million].
That is despite a 40 p.c share-price hunch. Paying a larger portion of his wage in shares, and linking the bonus to the Roundup litigation, would sharpen his thoughts, and blunt buyers’ criticism.”
$78 Million Verdict Is Main Blow Towards Roundup
Hundreds of individuals throughout the U.S. have filed lawsuits alleging that Monsanto’s (and now Bayer’s) Roundup herbicide triggered them to develop most cancers. In March 2015, the Worldwide Company for Analysis on Most cancers (IARC) decided glyphosate to be a “possible carcinogen” based mostly on proof exhibiting the favored weed-killing chemical may cause Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and lung most cancers in people, together with “convincing proof” it will probably additionally trigger most cancers in animals.
In August 2018, a jury dominated in favor of plaintiff Dewayne Johnson in a really historic case towards Monsanto. Johnson — the primary of the circumstances pending towards the chemical firm — claimed Roundup triggered his Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the court docket agreed.
Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages to Johnson, though the award was later lowered to $78 million. Bayer requested the court docket to throw out the judgment in April 2019, going as far as to ask for reversal of the damages awarded based mostly on the truth that Johnson is close to demise. On web page 87, the enchantment states:10
“A jury might award future noneconomic damages just for ache and struggling {that a} plaintiff in all fairness sure to expertise based mostly on his ‘projected life span on the time of trial’ …
[‘[D]amages for future ache and struggling are based mostly upon plaintiff’s possible life expectancy in his or her injured situation … [C]ompensation for ache and struggling is recompense for ache and struggling really skilled, and to the extent that untimely demise terminates the ache and struggling, compensation needs to be terminated’] …”
Bayer Loses Second Case, and Now Third Case
In a second case, a decide dominated in favor of the plaintiff, ordering Bayer to pay greater than $80 million. The jury agreed that Edwin Hardeman’s repeated exposures to Roundup, which he used to kill weeds on his 56-acre property, not solely performed a job in his most cancers analysis but additionally that the corporate didn’t warn shoppers that the product carried a most cancers threat.11
The case was cut up into two phases, with jurors first discovering the chemical to have triggered the most cancers on purely scientific grounds and the subsequent part discovering that Bayer is responsible for damages.12 In the end, Hardeman was awarded $75 million in punitive damages, $5.6 million in compensatory damages and $200,000 for medical bills.13
In an announcement, Hardeman’s attorneys Jennifer Moore and Aimee Wagstaff stated, “… [T]he jury resoundingly held Monsanto accountable for its 40 years of company malfeasance and despatched a message to Monsanto that it wants to alter the way in which it does enterprise.”14
In a 3rd earlier than Alameda County Superior Courtroom of California, a married couple, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, declare they each developed Non-Hodgkin lymphoma after common use of Roundup. The jury has now awarded them $2 billion, a devastating blow to Bayer. The victoms’ attorneys acknowledged:15
“They began utilizing Roundup within the Nineteen Seventies and continued utilizing the weed killer till just a few years in the past … Alva suffers from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in his bones that unfold to his pelvis and backbone. He was recognized in 2011. Alberta was recognized with non-Hodgkin lymphoma mind most cancers in 2015.”
EPA Reaffirms Glyphosate Is Protected as Trial Continues
Whereas court docket circumstances proceed to search out that glyphosate causes most cancers, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA), of their newest overview of glyphosate, launched a draft conclusion stating the chemical poses potential dangers to mammals and birds that eat handled leaves, in addition to dangers to vegetation,16 however “no dangers of concern” for individuals and “shouldn’t be more likely to be carcinogenic to people.”17
In the course of the 60-day public remark interval for the EPA’s glyphosate preliminary threat evaluation, many commenters disagreed with the EPA’s evaluation that glyphosate is secure based mostly on IARC’s 2015 discovering that glyphosate is “most likely carcinogenic to people.” As for why their conclusion differs from IARC’s, the EPA acknowledged:18
“EPA’s most cancers analysis is extra strong than IARC’s analysis. IARC’s analysis solely considers information which have been printed or accepted for publication within the overtly obtainable scientific literature. Consequently, IARC solely thought-about a subset of the research included within the EPA’s analysis.
As an illustration, IARC solely thought-about 8 animal carcinogenicity research whereas the company used 15 acceptable carcinogenicity research in its analysis. The EPA additionally excluded some research that weren’t acceptable for figuring out the human carcinogenic potential of glyphosate, resembling research in non-mammalian species (i.e., worms, fish, reptiles, and vegetation) which IARC utilized in its analysis.”
Nonetheless, critics, together with Nathan Donley, a scientist on the Middle for Organic Range, stated the EPA relied closely on industry-backed research and ignored analysis pointing to most cancers dangers.19 Even the EPA acknowledged:20
“Many commenters asserted that the EPA depends too closely on industry-funded research and that these research will not be accessible to the general public. Commenters requested that the EPA use open literature research to evaluate glyphosate and level to numerous open literature research describing varied human well being and ecological results.”
EPA Captured by Monsanto Lengthy In the past
Within the 2018 case involving Dewayne Johnson, it was discovered Monsanto “acted with malice or oppression” and was answerable for “negligent failure” by not warning shoppers concerning the carcinogenicity.21
Inside paperwork have revealed the EPA has colluded with Monsanto to guard the corporate’s pursuits. California’s Environmental Safety Company’s Workplace of Environmental Well being Hazard Evaluation (OEHHA) additionally introduced in 2015 that they meant to record glyphosate as a chemical identified to trigger most cancers beneath Proposition 65, which requires shopper merchandise with potential cancer-causing substances to bear warning labels.
Monsanto filed formal feedback with OEHHA saying the plan to record glyphosate as a carcinogen needs to be withdrawn. After they did not give in, Monsanto took it a step additional and filed a lawsuit towards OEHHA in January 2016 to cease the glyphosate/most cancers classification. OEHHA filed a movement to dismiss the lawsuit, and a Fresno, California superior court docket decide dominated on their behalf in February 2017.
Way back to 1983, when a Monsanto research revealed an elevated most cancers threat in mice uncovered to glyphosate, the EPA requested for additional research, however the firm merely refused. They claimed the research wasn’t a priority as a result of one mouse not uncovered to glyphosate additionally developed a tumor, and used this to assist its security.
Johnson’s lawyer, Timothy Litzenburg, advised Rolling Stone, “They fought over that one mouse’s kidney for years, spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} on consultants, as an alternative of simply doing the check once more. The EPA even provided a compromise — let’s simply do a kidney and liver check. Monsanto stated ‘no.’ It is wonderful how usually they’re capable of say no to the EPA.”22
Beforehand court-ordered unsealed paperwork have revealed that Monsanto scientists ghost-wrote research to clear glyphosate’s identify and even employed a scientist to steer the EPA to alter its most cancers classification resolution on the chemical.23
Additional, authorities e mail communications launched by way of a Freedom of Info Act request confirmed that the EPA coordinated with Monsanto to sluggish its overview of glyphosate.24 The draft conclusion that was lastly launched in April 2019 was alleged to have been printed by October 2015.
E mail correspondence confirmed Jess Rowland, who on the time was the EPA’s deputy division director of the Workplace of Chemical Security and Air pollution Prevention and chair of the Most cancers Evaluation Evaluate Committee (CARC), helped cease a glyphosate investigation by the Company for Poisonous Substances and Illness Registry (ATSDR), which is a part of the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS), on Monsanto’s behalf.
In an e mail, Monsanto regulatory affairs supervisor Dan Jenkins recounts a dialog he’d had with Rowland, during which Rowland stated, “If I can kill this I ought to get a medal,”25 referring to the ATSDR investigation, which was postpone for years. Nonetheless, based on U.S. Proper to Know, the deception runs even deeper:26
“[T]he trove of paperwork newly obtained from inside EPA and HHS show that the help to Monsanto got here not solely from Rowland but additionally from even higher-level EPA officers.
Quite than encourage and help the toxicology overview of glyphosate, Monsanto and EPA officers repeatedly complained to ATSDR and HHS that such a overview was unnecessarily ‘duplicative’ and may take a again seat to an EPA overview additionally underway.”
Glyphosate Continues To Be the Most Used Agricultural Chemical
There are lots of routes of publicity to this probably carcinogen, together with through your ingesting water and weight-reduction plan. In testing achieved by Mates of the Earth (FOE), one hundred pc of oat cereal samples examined optimistic for residues of glyphosate.27
The common degree of glyphosate in cereal samples was 360 components per billion (ppb), which FOE famous is greater than twice the extent set by Environmental Working Group (EWG) scientists for lifetime most cancers threat in youngsters. Among the cereal samples contained residues as excessive as 931 ppb.
Because it stands, practically 300 million kilos of glyphosate are used within the U.S. annually,28 with unknown penalties to human well being — however what we all know to date would not look good.
What’s clear is that Monsanto/Bayer continues to work very onerous to suppress any and all unfavourable publicity about its golden youngster glyphosate, at the same time as the reality continues to emerge. Sadly, Bayer’s prime precedence continues to be appeasing its shareholders and interesting glyphosate lawsuits as an alternative of stopping the usage of this harmful chemical.
