Dem
47
GOP
53
Robert Kennedy Jr.'s MAHA movement is becoming a political force, just not entirely the way the administration wants. In particular, MAHA moms are very angry about how the administration has handled glyphosate, the ingredient in the popular weed killer Roundup. Studies have shown that glyphosate causes cancer. Thousands of people exposed to Roundup have gotten non-Hodgkins lymphoma and have filed lawsuits against Roundup maker Monsanto, now a division of German chemical giant Bayer.
At issue is Donald Trump's February XO that would boost the production of glyphosate. This pits farmers (who love Roundup) against MAHA moms (who hate it).
The issue came to a head on Monday when the Supreme Court heard Monsanto v. Durnell, which has Monsanto facing off against John Durnell, a cancer survivor. He asserted that Monsanto was liable for damages caused by Roundup because it failed to comply with a state law requiring it to label Roundup as carcinogenic. The case is fairly technical, hinging on whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) preempts state laws requiring label warnings. In 2005, in Bates v. Dow Agrosciences, the Supreme Court held that states can impose "requirements" on companies as long as they are functionally the same as FIFRA's misbranding standard.
The MAHA moms probably haven't read all of FIFRA or Bates but they don't want their families—or themselves—poisoned. Many of them are following this case very closely. Hundreds of them showed up Monday outside the Supreme Court to protest against Monsanto. They are rooting for Durnell. If he wins, anyone injured by Roundup will be able to sue Monsanto or Bayer, which will put a lot of pressure on the company to at least put a warning on the label and maybe even withdraw the product from the market.
Despite the highly technical nature of FIFRA and the case, if Monsanto wins, the MAHA moms will be furious with Trump for his XO increasing production of glyphosate (to keep farmers happy). Aligning with the MAHA moms on this one would be a no-brainer for the Democrats. Here's the pitch: "Trump is poisoning babies to help a giant German chemical corporation increase its profits."
It is even more complicated than this. It is ironic that back when Kennedy was an environmental lawyer, he was lead counsel in a 2018 court case in which a jury found Monsanto liable for a school groundskeeper getting cancer from Roundup and awarded the dying man $289 million. When Kennedy got his current job he promised to ban glyphosate, but Trump now overruled him. (V)