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SCOTUS hearing could delay state failure to warn legislation

The CEO of the Missouri Soybean Association says the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to review a glyphosate lawsuit could put failure to warn legislation on hold.

Casey Wasser tells Brownfield, “we’re going to be navigating, what do we do next? Do we wait to see what SCOTUS says because lawmakers don’t want to pass a bill and then, it be null and void by SCOTUS. We’re talking to bill sponsors right now.”

Failure to warn happens when a company makes a product and doesn’t give enough information about the dangers or risks.

Kurtis Gregory, a State Senator in Missouri, is the sponsor of one failure to warn bill, SB 1005, in the Missouri Legislature. Another bill related to pesticide liability is HB 2712, sponsored by Representative Dane Diehl.

Gregory’s bill would require any pesticide registered by federal agencies to satisfy any warning label requirement regarding cancer, but says the companies that make pesticides don’t get a free pass if something goes wrong.

Diehl’s bill requires pesticide companies register their products each year in Missouri and submit labels, gives the Missouri Ag Department the authority to review, approve or deny pesticides and require label changes, and aligns Missouri rules with federal EPA standards.

Gregory tells Brownfield lawmakers are discussing their options.

Missouri’s Attorney General Catherine Hanaway was at the Missouri Soybean Association’s annual meeting this week, and Wasser says she’s expecting a favorable outcome from SCOTUS.

“But, we’ll have to wait and see. We’re thinking SCOTUS will take things up in early summer.”

For years, Bayer has faced legal challenges regarding health concerns of glyphosate, a commonly used herbicide. Wasser says if glyphosate lawsuits continue, farmers will be negatively affected. 

“There’s two scenarios, either one: farmers are going to pay the tens of billions of dollars that are being paid out, because these companies can’t absorb those losses, so it’s going to be passed along to farmers buying the product. The worst case scenario: the products get pulled from the market and we have to buy all of it from China.”

Brownfield interviewed Wasser at the Missouri Soybean Association’s annual meeting.