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https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-jury-finds-monsanto-guilty-roundup-trial-224845050.html

Of course this means fuck-all to Monsanto, since Monsanto doesn't actually exist anymore. It's sure funny how this ruling comes down less than 60 days after Monsanto was dissolved into Bayer, a sale that occurred one week before the commencement of this trial. Insider trading if there has ever been.

Regardless, this is a first and major step towards exposing a long series of potentially corrupt companies that perform fake studies at the behest of multinational corporations, enabling the willful and malicious sale of products that could hold a known risk to the life of the consumer.

Also, congrats to Bayer for paying $63Bn to pick up what is possibly the biggest liability of the last decade. Impressive.

TL;DR: the science-for-hire industry is about to get royally ass-fucked.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-jury-finds-monsanto-guilty-roundup-trial-224845050.html Of course this means fuck-all to Monsanto, since Monsanto doesn't actually exist anymore. It's sure funny how this ruling comes down less than 60 days after Monsanto was dissolved into Bayer, a sale that occurred one week before the commencement of this trial. Insider trading if there has ever been. Regardless, this is a first and major step towards exposing a long series of potentially corrupt companies that perform fake studies at the behest of multinational corporations, enabling the willful and malicious sale of products that could hold a known risk to the life of the consumer. Also, congrats to Bayer for paying $63Bn to pick up what is possibly the biggest liability of the last decade. Impressive. TL;DR: the science-for-hire industry is about to get royally ass-fucked.

2 comments

You think it will go as far as you say it will? I am just as hopeful, but I can't help but be cynical about it all. Wasn't Monsanto responsible for agent orange through a government contract? I imagine they are pretty well protected by this point. Plus they have all that nonsense with genetic engineering our food.

I really hope the bubble pops.

I don't think the big corporations will burn to the ground or anything so dramatic as that. I do think that as more cases like this make it to court, it will be a natural progression for people to start asking how scientists could miss something that "crazy environmentalist hippies" (like myself) have been bitching about for over a decade.

At the least, I expect it to bring attention to how cheap it is to buy a scientific study or two to appease the FDA. I've actually seen it personally. Every big company does this to streamline their approval process on a new product. Between $20,000 and $60,000 will get you your approval months earlier, and that money is almost always recouped during that period.

Depending on how potent of a carcinogen this stuff really is, it could turn out different ways. If its only the workers who apply glyphosate getting sick, it might be less of a big deal to the public.

Still, this has other major potential effects on Monsanto. Most of those GMOs they own can't grow without glyphosate. If it gets banned, those GMO crops are literally useless for monoccrop farming. If those GMOs are no longer worth anything, I'd wager that's half of Monsanto's earning potential right down the toilet.

It might not change overnight, but I think its a big first step in addressing some of the most fundamental problems the US has with its environment.