BREAKING: French Court Rules Monsanto Guilty Of Chemical Poisoning

Credit: Jurist.org
Credit: Jurist.org


When a court in southeast France found Monsanto guilty of chemically poisoning farmers in 2012, the biotech company fought tooth and nail for the conviction to be reversed. One can understand why: the court declared in that ruling that Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller was responsible for devastating neurological problems, including memory loss.

But after an appeal process by Monsanto which lasted for years, a French appeal court recently upheld the ruling in full. 

This news is monumental for a number of reasons: First, never before in French history has ‘chemical poisoning’ by Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller been confirmed. While it was banned in France in 2007 (after already being pulled off the market by other nations), this matter centered around a French farmer who had been exposed to the deadly concoction.

Grain grower Paul Francois took Monsanto to court back in 2012, stating that he developed neurological problems such as memory loss and headaches after being exposed to the weedkiller in 2004. He was – rightly – upset that Monsanto failed to provide proper warnings on the product label and was left to suffer from the consequences of the poison.

The French court ordered an expert opinion to determine the sum of the damages, as well as to verify the link between Lasso and the reported illnesses. The case could not be more important, for previous legal action taken against Monsanto by farmers failed due to the inability to properly link pesticide exposure with the degenerative side effects.

Francois said to Reuters: 

“I am alive today, but part of the farming population is going to be sacrificed and is going to die because of this.” 

The farmer’s persistent efforts have paid off, thankfully. 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.

The world is waking up to the dangers posed by Monsanto, and it won’t be long before the biotech company is forced to pay for its greedy ambitions.

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