"Hampered by fear and deprived of resources, migrant farmworkers are unlikely to come forward and seek restitution."
"In 2018, a California school groundskeeper took Monsanto Company to court, alleging that Roundup, one of America's most popular weed killers, caused his Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer.
The jury agreed and ordered Monsanto to pay the man $289 million in damages, concluding the world's first Roundup cancer trial.
Since then, more than 100,000 plaintiffs exposed to Roundup have sought retributions in the courts. While Bayer, the colossal German chemical and pharmaceutical company that now owns Monsanto, has agreed to pay billions of dollars to put these cancer lawsuits to rest, legal experts say migrant farmworkers, who are at the forefront of pesticide and herbicide exposures—including Roundup—are expected to be left out.
It is hard to know exactly how many migrant farmworkers have filed lawsuits against Bayer. However, after speaking with law firms that have represented plaintiffs from major Roundup cancer lawsuits and farmworker organizations across the country, Environmental Health News has found little evidence that any migrant farmworkers have done so. Fear of retaliation, and a lack of legal resources and legal immigration status, has diminished migrant farmworkers' likelihood to seek justice and compensation."
Huanjia Zhang reports for Environmental Health News October 14, 2021.
