Monday marked the start of an ongoing trial concerning the controversial weed killer Roundup — a trade name for glyphosate. A jury in a federal court in San Francisco will soon decide whether or not Roundup is responsible for a California man’s cancer.

Glyphosate, a common herbicide, is a valuable part of the integrated pest management system and is used within a broad array of agricultural and urban settings. Farmers – as well as governments, gardeners and other users – depend on glyphosate as an efficient and cost-effective tool that can be used safely to control weeds.

According to Law360, a California federal judge overseeing the jury trial “blasted the plaintiff’s attorney on the first day of trial, saying she’d intentionally revealed restricted information in her opening statements for the trial’s first phase, and threatening her with sanctions. During the first hour of opening arguments, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria interrupted plaintiff Edward Hardeman’s attorney, Aimee H. Wagstaff of Andrus Wagstaff, multiple times. The judge instructed her to ‘move on’ from certain topics that strayed too far afield from whether Monsanto’s herbicides generally cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma and whether it specifically caused Hardeman’s cancer.”

To help ensure a balanced and fact-based public conversation about glyphosate, we encourage Western Growers members to engage in the discussion, sharing their story about the importance and utility of glyphosate. To help members engage in the discussion, Bayer recently launched two new glyphosate webpages with information about the herbicide and its importance to agriculture: 

• www.GlyphosateLitigationFacts.com – This new website includes information, resources, and Bayer’s media statements on the glyphosate litigation. This website will be updated regularly as developments occur. Please feel free to use this website for your own reference and/or share with those in your networks that are following the litigation closely.
• www.Bayer.com/Glyphosate – This new webpage includes a variety of good general information and content about glyphosate benefits and safety. This webpage will also be updated regularly as new content is developed. Please feel free to use and share the link if useful.

For more information, contact Hank Giclas at (949) 885-2205.