For Bayer, legal troubles fly in a flight. In addition to tens of thousands of complaints filed against its herbicide Roundup, a new file has just clouded the horizon for the German agrochemical and pharmaceutical giant: dicamba. On Saturday February 15, a US court ordered Bayer, as well as the German chemist BASF, to pay compensation of 265 million dollars (244 million euros) to a farmer from Missouri, who accused their pesticide dicamba of having destroyed his peach orchards.
The jury of the federal court of Cape Girardeau, in this state of Midwest American, agreed with Bill Bader, who affirmed that the two German groups encouraged the cultivators to use this product in a reckless manner. Sprayed in abundance on genetically modified soybean fields around Mr. Bader's farm, this powerful weedkiller, manufactured by Monsanto, contaminated the vegetable farmer's land and devastated its less resistant crops.
For Bayer, this judgment represents a new blow, two years after its resounding acquisition of Monsanto, for 63 billion dollars. The American giant of GMOs and seeds produces Roundup and dicamba, and these two pesticides continue to poison the German group. BASF, which markets another phytosanitary product based on dicamba, is also involved in the latter case.
The day after the court’s decision, Bayer announced his intention to appeal. "We believe that the evidence presented during the trial demonstrated that Monsanto's products were not responsible for the alleged losses", assured the group in a press release. However, the battle for dicamba has only just begun.
Incurable cancers
Indeed, the Cape Girardeau judgment is only the first in a series of more than 140 lawsuits already brought by American farmers against Monsanto and its parent company Bayer because of this weedkiller. More than a million hectares of crops have been damaged in some 20 states. The GMO specialist denies all responsibility and blames the farmers, whom he accuses of not having applied dicamba in accordance with the very complex instructions for use of this product.
"The risk posed by this file has already been known for years", says Markus Mayer, an analyst at Baader Bank, who says that "Its economic impact should remain limited". According to the Munich expert, sales of this pesticide by Bayer amount to only around 190 million euros per year, less than 0.5% of the turnover of the agrochemical mastodon.
