Today, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act, which seeks to establish a federal right for people to sue pesticide companies for harm caused by their products.
In response, Farm Action Fund issued the following statement, which can be attributed to its president, Joe Maxwell:
“Pesticide manufacturers should not have the power to silence the people who feed America, yet that’s exactly what’s happening—as these corporations are working to block those that their products have harmed from seeking justice in the courts. Dominant and often foreign-owned companies like Germany’s Bayer-Monsanto and China’s Syngenta are wielding their excessive power to aggressively lobby for state and federal laws that would shield them from liability for harm caused by their products. There is an urgent need to pass this bill to ensure farmers can bring legal action against pesticide companies. We applaud Senator Booker for this legislation and believe this is an issue that can unite both sides of the aisle.”
Governors from Georgia and North Dakota have both signed legislation into law providing immunity to pesticide manufacturers from failure-to-warn claims. In the most recent legislative session, at least eight other states introduced similar legislation, with drafts circulating in more than 20. Learn more from Farm Action’s blog, Bayer-Monsanto’s “Gag Laws”: Silencing Farmers and Shielding Corporations.
Media Contact: Emma Nicolas, 202-450-0094, [email protected]
