Monsanto beginning to pay

Dear readers: After I posted warnings in this column about some pet foods being contaminated with Monsanto’s herbicide glyphosate

(via the widely used Roundup), the company was quick to demand that I post a retraction. Not only will Monsanto not get a retraction, it now appears that the company may be starting to pay for producing and distributing glyphosate, which the World Health Organization has designated a probable carcinogen.

This August, a San Francisco jury awarded groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson — who had used Roundup for years at his job, and developed what his doctors consider fatal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma — the sum of $250 million in punitive damages and $39 million in compensatory damages.

“The jury found Monsanto acted with malice and oppression because they knew what they were doing was wrong, and doing it with reckless disregard for human life,” said Robert F. Kennedy

Jr., one of Johnson’s attorneys, according to the Associated Press. This is the first of hundreds of cancer-patient cases against Monsanto, and could be a bellwether of what lies ahead for the company. Monsanto still claims this product is safe.

For decades, some government regulators and legislators have colluded to shield such companies from the mounting scientific evidence of the harmful public health and environmental consequences of pesticides. Company lawyers and paid scientists have sought to discredit studies that put their products in a bad light. One example: former Environmental Protection Agency administrator

Scott Pruitt’s March 2017 denial of a petition by environmental groups to halt the use of chlorpyrifos on food crops.

Dow Chemical’s chlorpyrifos is a highly toxic organophosphate, a class of insecticides once approved to kill fleas on pets, but that also poisoned dogs and cats. Some 5 million pounds of chlorpyrifos are used annually in the U.S. on soybean, fruit and nut crops. It is implicated in causing neurological, cognitive and other health problems, especially in children — not to mention its impact on biodiversity, as it eliminates nontarget beneficial insects and insectivorous birds and bats. Manatees, dolphins and other warm-blooded marine animals can’t break down organophosphates due to genetic mutations that occurred long ago, making them especially vulnerable.

Thankfully, Pruitt’s decision has now been overruled in a Seattlebased appeals court. Judge Jed Rakoff has directed the EPA to ban chlorpyrifos within 60 days, saying the agency failed to counteract “scientific evidence that its residue on food causes neurodevelopmental damage to children.”

Class-action lawsuits against pet food manufacturers

Rachael Ray Nutrish

Pet Food is facing a $5 million class-action lawsuit for deceptive advertising. Solid Gold

Pet Food is facing a classaction lawsuit regarding contamination of “heavy metals, chemicals, and/or toxins.”

For details about both, visit truthaboutpetfood. com.