Credit: Nation of Change

When a court in southeast France found Monsanto guilty of chemically poisoning farmers in 2012, the biotech company fought tooth and nail for the conviction to be reversed.

One can understand why: the court declared in that ruling that Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller was responsible for devastating neurological problems, including memory loss.

But after an appeal process by Monsanto which lasted for years, a French appeal court recently upheld the ruling in full.

This news is monumental for a number of reasons: First, never before in French history has ‘chemical poisoning’ by Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller been confirmed. While it was banned in France in 2007 (after already being pulled off the market by other nations), this matter centered around a French farmer who had been exposed to the deadly concoction.

Grain grower Paul Francois took Monsanto to court back in 2012, stating that he developed neurological problems such as memory loss and headaches after being exposed to the weedkiller in 2004. He was – rightly – upset that Monsanto failed to provide proper warnings on the product label and was left […]