10-state class action lawsuit filed against Monsanto over dicamba

Months after being sued by Bader Farms, Monsanto Co. now faces a 10-state class-action lawsuit in relation to the illegal spraying of dicamba.

The latest suit was filed by Randles and Splittgerber, the same law firm representing Bader Farms.

It was filed on behalf of Steven and Dee Landers, who run a family-owned corn and soybean farm in New Madrid County, Missouri.

The suit also includes farmers reportedly affected by the alleged illegal spraying of dicamba in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Like the Bader Farms lawsuit, Thursday’s announcement accuses Monsanto of knowingly selling its Xtend cotton and soybean seeds without selling safe herbicide alongside it. The seeds reportedly gained EPA approval before the 2016 growing season, but the herbicide did not gain EPA approval until November.

“Monsanto chose to sell these seeds before they could be safely cultivated,” Bev Randles of Randles and Splittgerber said in a news release Thursday morning. “Monsanto’s own advertising repeatedly describes its Xtend seeds and its accompanying herbicide as a ‘system’ intended to be used together. But when Monsanto failed to get approval to sell the herbicide, it recklessly chose to go ahead and sell the seeds regardless.

“The inevitable result was farmers throughout the country used illegal and dangerous herbicides to try to protect the Xtend seeds. That inappropriate use of herbicides, which Monsanto knew would occur and encouraged, decimated hundreds of thousands of acres of crops nationwide.”

Monsanto repeatedly has claimed the responsibility for the illegal use of its dicamba formulations should rest on those individuals who broke state and federal law.

Charla Lord, a spokeswoman for Monsanto, reiterated the company’s stance Thursday in an email to the Daily Dunklin Democrat.

“This baseless lawsuit seeks an unprecedented expansion of the law by attempting to impose liability on a company that did not make the product that allegedly caused the damage, did not sell the product that allegedly caused the damage and, in fact, warned against the very use of the product alleged in the complaint,” Lord said.

“If any of the damage alleged in the complaint was actually caused by use of the non-Monsanto herbicide product over Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, that use was illegal and performed by third parties over whom Monsanto has no control,” she added. “This suit is simply an attempt to shift responsibility away from individuals who knowingly and intentionally broke state and federal law and harmed their neighbors in the process. The lawsuit is wholly without merit, and we will defend ourselves accordingly.”

The latest lawsuit brings together a large group of farmers who all reported losses related to the illegal use of dicamba.

During a public hearing last year in Portageville, Missouri, farmers and officials reported damage to thousands of acres of crops.

“The more we learned about the extent of the damage, the more concerned we became for the smaller farmers who lack the resources to seek redress against Monsanto individually,” Randles said. “The purpose of this suit is to hold Monsanto liable for its harm to all landowners, regardless of the size of the farms.”

Dicamba is known widely as a highly volatile herbicide with a tendency to drift if it’s sprayed over the top.

State Rep. Don Rone, R-Portageville, has proposed three bills related to the use of dicamba.

One bill would bring harsher penalties to those caught using dicamba illegally, while another would prevent companies from selling herbicide-resistant seeds without an approved herbicide.

The other bill seeks to review herbicides to determine whether they are classified as an “inherently volatile herbicide.”