Farmers File Class Action Against Monsanto for Dicamba Drift

Farmers from 10 states are eligible to join a potential class-action lawsuit against Monsanto due to alleged dicamba drift damage. The states include Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

“They are among the hundreds of farmers throughout the nation who have been victimized by Monsanto’s defective Xtend seed system and its purchasers’ inevitable use of dicamba, a drift-prone herbicide that has wiped out hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in the U.S.,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Missouri.

Plaintiffs claim Monsanto willfully and negligently released the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend cropping systems without an accompanying, EPA-approved herbicide. The suit blames Monsanto for the off-label spraying that resulted.

Monsanto rejects the claims.

“This baseless lawsuit seeks an unprecedented expansion of the law by attempting to impose liability on a company that did not make the product that allegedly caused the damage, did not sell the product that allegedly caused the damage and, in fact, warned against the very use of the product alleged in the complaint,” Monsanto said in an emailed statement.

“This suit is simply an attempt to shift responsibility away from individuals who knowingly and intentionally broke state and federal law and harmed their neighbors in the process.  The lawsuit is wholly without merit, and we will defend ourselves accordingly,” Monsanto said.