French court finds Monsanto guilty of poisoning farmer
Organic and GMO foods
Newscast Media LYON, France — French farmer Paul François, has won a case against biotech giant Monsanto, in which a judge in France ruled that the companybcould be held liable for poisoning the farmer. François inhaled the vapor of Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller while cleaning out the tank of a crop sprayer, in 2004, and lost consciousness, then later suffered from headaches and memory loss.
Monsanto was accused by the prosecution of failing to furnish sufficient warnings on the product label and continuing to carry Lasso in the French market until it was banned in France in 2007, despite earlier bans in Canada, Belgium and the U.K.
After facing worldwide criticism, Monsanto developed the weed killer RoundUp to replace Agent Orange, and has since become the world’s largest producer of herbicides. With the success of RoundUp and after facing a series of lawsuits in the 80s, Monsanto transformed itself into a biotechnology company that pushed genetic
engineering as ground-breaking technology that could not feed the world’s hungry populations.
A report by the American Academy Of Environmental Medicine has called for a moratorium of GM foods based on multiple animal studies that show significant immune dysregulation, including upregulation of cytokines associated with asthma, allergy, and inflammation. Animal studies also show altered structure and function of
the liver, including altered lipid and carbohydrate metabolism as well as cellular changes that could lead to accelerated aging and possibly lead to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS).
Monsanto said it was disappointed by the ruling in France and would examine whether to appeal against the judgment.
“Monsanto always considered that there were not sufficient elements to establish a causal relationship between Paul Francois’s symptoms and a potential poisoning,” the company’s lawyer, Jean-Philippe Delsart, said.
The ruling was given by a court in Lyon, south-east France, which ordered an expert opinion of Francois’s losses to establish the amount of damages.
Related article: Monsanto food wars Part I and II
