In 2012, I told you about the court in southeast France that found Monsanto guilty of chemically-poisoning farmers. The court declared that Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller was responsible for devastating neurological problems, including memory loss. Now, after an appeal process by Monsanto that lasted years, a French appeal court has upheld the ruling in full.
This case is monumental for a number of reasons, including the fact that it is the first in French history to confirm the ‘chemical poisoning’ of Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller, which was banned in France back in 2007 (after already being pulled off the market by other nations). But this case wasn’t a matter of government policy change — it centered around a French farmer who had been exposed to Lasso.
A grain grower, Paul Francois, was the one responsible for originally taking Monsanto to court back in 2012, stating that he developed neurological problems such as memory loss and headaches after being exposed to Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller back in 2004. Francois said that Monsanto failed to provide proper warnings on the product label.
The court ordered an expert opinion to determine the sum of the damages, and to verify the link between Lasso and the reported illnesses. The case was extremely important, as previous legal action taken against Monsanto by farmers has failed due to the challenge of properly linking pesticide exposure with the experienced side effects.
“I am alive today, but part of the farming population is going to be sacrificed and is going to die because of this,” Francois, 47, told Reuters
As IB Times reports:
“Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, was found guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer by a French court this week. The decision Thursday by an appeal court in Lyon in southeast France upheld a 2012 ruling in which the farmer claimed he suffered neurological problems after working with the U.S. company’s Lasso weedkiller, Reuters reported.”