Episode 34: Pesticides: Profits vs. People
When it comes to pesticides, most people focus their concern on what they and their family eat. But the question of harm, when it comes to the toxic chemicals we use to grow food, is much larger than that. In recent years, users of various pesticides, like glyphosate and paraquat, have begun to sue the agrichemical companies for liability in their cancers. How these cases are playing out touches on central questions about who is most harmed by our chemical-intensive agriculture system, and who must pay the price.
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“It is interesting because there have been so many times over these years where really the way for them to put an end to this litigation was to simply put a cancer warning on the product. … But the company has been steadfast that it will not do that, will never do that.”
Episode guests:
Max Sano
Max is a senior policy and coalitions associate at Beyond Pesticides, which works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides.
Carey Gillam
Carey is an investigative journalist and author with more than 30 years of experience covering food and agricultural policies and practices. She is the author of “Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science,” and “The Monsanto Papers.” She currently writes as a contributor for The Guardian, and is managing editor of The New Lede, a journalism initiative of the Environmental Working Group.
Aaron Lehman
Aaron is a fifth-generation family farmer from rural Polk County, Iowa, where he and his family raise corn, soybeans, oats, and hay in both organic and conventional rotations. Aaron is the president of the Iowa Farmers Union.
Urvashi Rangan
Urvashi is the Chief Science Advisor for FoodPrint, and a toxicologist and public health scientist with 20 years of experience studying the food system. She is a co-chair of the Funders for Regenerative Agriculture and for many years she worked at Consumer Reports, heading up their Food Safety and Sustainability Center.
FoodPrint resources:
Additional resources:
- Beyond Pesticides’ Resource Hub on Failure to Warn/Bayer Bills
- Investigate Midwest’s pesticides and cancer reporting
- Cancer in the Corn Belt series on The New Lede
- Merchants of Poison, a report from U.S. Right to Know in collaboration with Friends of the Earth and Real Food Media
- Civil Eats breaks down the Monsanto v. Durnell case, step by step.
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Top photo by NataliAlba/Adobe Stock.