Reid Smeda, a professor of plant sciences, speaks about dicamba to a group of Missouri farmers on August 5, 2014. (Photo: Mizzou CAFNR//flickr/cc)
Jul 07, 2022
An advocacy group on Thursday welcomed an appeals court ruling that, while tossing out a $60 million award to a Missouri peach farmer whose trees were killed by the herbicide dicamba, did not challenge a federal jury's 2020 verdict that the weedkiller's manufacturers are responsible.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis ruled that chemical giants Monsanto--acquired by Bayer AG in 2018--and BASF are liable for damage to Bill Bader's peach groves caused by dicamba, leaving in place a $15 million judgment for nonpunitive damages.
However, the court ordered a new trial to determine punitive damages to be assessed against each company separately. Punitive damages worth $60 million, a reduction from the jury's original award of $250 million, were dismissed pending the new trial.
"The appeals court correctly held Monsanto and BASF responsible for unprecedented damage to Bader's peach orchard from dicamba drift. But this is just the beginning," said Meredith Stevenson, staff attorney at the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that filed an amicus brief in support of Bader.
\u201cIn 2021, we filed a legal brief in support of Bill Bader, who successfully sued for devastation of his 1,000-acre peach orchard caused by dicamba drift. The brief defended a district court verdict in favor of Bader\u2014in which a jury awarded him $265M, subsequently reduced to $75M.\u201d— Center for Food Safety (@Center for Food Safety) 1657223268
"The destruction to Bader's orchards provides just a single example of the widespread harm inflicted on thousands of farmers and the environment from Monsanto's negligence and EPA's refusal to cancel its dicamba approval," she added. "We will continue to fight to prevent continued harm to millions of acres of cropland, hundreds of endangered species, parks, wildlife refuges, and other natural areas from dicamba."
The St. Louis Post-Dispatchreports:
Bader's lawsuit, one of more than 100 similar lawsuits over dicamba, went to trial in early 2020. Bayer in June 2020 announced that it would pay up to $400 million to settle the remaining dicamba lawsuits.
Bader, who operates Missouri's largest peach orchard near the Arkansas border, said many trees were killed when dicamba drifted onto his property from nearby soybean and cotton farms...
Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer, began selling dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton seeds it developed in 2015 and 2016, respectively, leading to an explosion of dicamba use, Bader and other farmers have said.
A report published last year by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that during the administration of former President Donald Trump, high-ranking officials intentionally excluded scientific evidence of dicamba-related hazards, including the risk of widespread drift damage, before reapproving the dangerous chemical.
Another 2021 EPA report described the widespread harm to farmers and the environment caused by dicamba during last year's growing season.
Join Us: News for people demanding a better world
Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place. We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Join with us today! |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
An advocacy group on Thursday welcomed an appeals court ruling that, while tossing out a $60 million award to a Missouri peach farmer whose trees were killed by the herbicide dicamba, did not challenge a federal jury's 2020 verdict that the weedkiller's manufacturers are responsible.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis ruled that chemical giants Monsanto--acquired by Bayer AG in 2018--and BASF are liable for damage to Bill Bader's peach groves caused by dicamba, leaving in place a $15 million judgment for nonpunitive damages.
However, the court ordered a new trial to determine punitive damages to be assessed against each company separately. Punitive damages worth $60 million, a reduction from the jury's original award of $250 million, were dismissed pending the new trial.
"The appeals court correctly held Monsanto and BASF responsible for unprecedented damage to Bader's peach orchard from dicamba drift. But this is just the beginning," said Meredith Stevenson, staff attorney at the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that filed an amicus brief in support of Bader.
\u201cIn 2021, we filed a legal brief in support of Bill Bader, who successfully sued for devastation of his 1,000-acre peach orchard caused by dicamba drift. The brief defended a district court verdict in favor of Bader\u2014in which a jury awarded him $265M, subsequently reduced to $75M.\u201d— Center for Food Safety (@Center for Food Safety) 1657223268
"The destruction to Bader's orchards provides just a single example of the widespread harm inflicted on thousands of farmers and the environment from Monsanto's negligence and EPA's refusal to cancel its dicamba approval," she added. "We will continue to fight to prevent continued harm to millions of acres of cropland, hundreds of endangered species, parks, wildlife refuges, and other natural areas from dicamba."
The St. Louis Post-Dispatchreports:
Bader's lawsuit, one of more than 100 similar lawsuits over dicamba, went to trial in early 2020. Bayer in June 2020 announced that it would pay up to $400 million to settle the remaining dicamba lawsuits.
Bader, who operates Missouri's largest peach orchard near the Arkansas border, said many trees were killed when dicamba drifted onto his property from nearby soybean and cotton farms...
Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer, began selling dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton seeds it developed in 2015 and 2016, respectively, leading to an explosion of dicamba use, Bader and other farmers have said.
A report published last year by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that during the administration of former President Donald Trump, high-ranking officials intentionally excluded scientific evidence of dicamba-related hazards, including the risk of widespread drift damage, before reapproving the dangerous chemical.
Another 2021 EPA report described the widespread harm to farmers and the environment caused by dicamba during last year's growing season.
From Your Site Articles
An advocacy group on Thursday welcomed an appeals court ruling that, while tossing out a $60 million award to a Missouri peach farmer whose trees were killed by the herbicide dicamba, did not challenge a federal jury's 2020 verdict that the weedkiller's manufacturers are responsible.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis ruled that chemical giants Monsanto--acquired by Bayer AG in 2018--and BASF are liable for damage to Bill Bader's peach groves caused by dicamba, leaving in place a $15 million judgment for nonpunitive damages.
However, the court ordered a new trial to determine punitive damages to be assessed against each company separately. Punitive damages worth $60 million, a reduction from the jury's original award of $250 million, were dismissed pending the new trial.
"The appeals court correctly held Monsanto and BASF responsible for unprecedented damage to Bader's peach orchard from dicamba drift. But this is just the beginning," said Meredith Stevenson, staff attorney at the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that filed an amicus brief in support of Bader.
\u201cIn 2021, we filed a legal brief in support of Bill Bader, who successfully sued for devastation of his 1,000-acre peach orchard caused by dicamba drift. The brief defended a district court verdict in favor of Bader\u2014in which a jury awarded him $265M, subsequently reduced to $75M.\u201d— Center for Food Safety (@Center for Food Safety) 1657223268
"The destruction to Bader's orchards provides just a single example of the widespread harm inflicted on thousands of farmers and the environment from Monsanto's negligence and EPA's refusal to cancel its dicamba approval," she added. "We will continue to fight to prevent continued harm to millions of acres of cropland, hundreds of endangered species, parks, wildlife refuges, and other natural areas from dicamba."
The St. Louis Post-Dispatchreports:
Bader's lawsuit, one of more than 100 similar lawsuits over dicamba, went to trial in early 2020. Bayer in June 2020 announced that it would pay up to $400 million to settle the remaining dicamba lawsuits.
Bader, who operates Missouri's largest peach orchard near the Arkansas border, said many trees were killed when dicamba drifted onto his property from nearby soybean and cotton farms...
Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer, began selling dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton seeds it developed in 2015 and 2016, respectively, leading to an explosion of dicamba use, Bader and other farmers have said.
A report published last year by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that during the administration of former President Donald Trump, high-ranking officials intentionally excluded scientific evidence of dicamba-related hazards, including the risk of widespread drift damage, before reapproving the dangerous chemical.
Another 2021 EPA report described the widespread harm to farmers and the environment caused by dicamba during last year's growing season.
From Your Site Articles
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.