The Dark History Behind Bayer’s Quest for Blanket Immunity From Liability for Pesticides That Cause Cancer

By A Midwestern Doctor

Story at a glance:

• For over a century, Monsanto has produced toxic products that have injured millions and rendered many areas uninhabitable. Recently, this changed due to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) successfully suing them for cancers caused by Roundup (glyphosate).
• In 2018, Bayer acquired Monsanto. This backfired due to billions in Roundup judgments, causing Bayer to rapidly lose two-thirds of its value.
• To save the company, Bayer is conducting measures to end those lawsuits within the Courts, States, Congress, and EPA. Many involve creating liability shields, making it impossible to sue pesticide manufacturers for injuries, even if they deliberately concealed known toxicity.
• Presently, a bill is working through Congress containing a covert provision designed to shield Bayer and other manufacturers from these lawsuits.
• This can only pass if the public is unaware. As such, it’s vital to expose what is happening and the dark history behind it.

To neutralize corruption and abuses of power, the U.S. utilizes a brilliant set of checks and balances to constrain bad actors from going too far. It provides avenues through which the public can be mobilized if things become too egregious.

Overcoming this framework, hence, requires bad actors to take a multi-pronged approach and co-opt anything that can constrain their misdeeds.

For example, COVID-19 was only possible because virtually every institution that should have prevented unconstitutional lockdowns, suppression of treatments and vaccine mandates failed, instead working in concert to advance the COVID cartel.

Yet even here, due to independent media, liberty-minded politicians and egregious policies, a check eventually formed and neutralized the COVID cartel.

Furthermore, this newfound public awareness shattered the trust used to market medicine, and COVID-19 is now costing the medical industry more than was made from the pandemic — illustrating our system has robust checks once things get too out of line.

Exempting liability

Since the pharmaceutical industry has co-opted most of our institutions, those that still protect us are critical to protect. As the courts often fulfill that role, a holy grail of predatory industries has been to neutralize the court by passing laws that shield corporations from liability.

For example, the DTwP (diphtheria, tetanus and whole-cell pertussis vaccine) vaccine was long recognized as particularly dangerous, frequently causing brain damage and death, yet for decades, the medical community and government covered it up, and industry refused to bring the safer acellular DPT vaccine to market.

As grassroots awareness spread (aided by a 1982 NBC program), more lawsuits were filed against vaccine manufacturers, mostly for DTwP injuries:

“Information provided by the three commercial manufacturers indicates a striking increase in lawsuits alleging vaccine damage. Only one case was filed in 1978, whereas 73 were filed in 1984. The average amount claimed per suit rose from $10 million to $46.5 million.”

DTwP manufacturers rapidly left the market (due to rising liability costs) and by 1984, only one remained. This led to a deal being brokered between advocates for vaccine-injured children and pharmaceutical lobbyists.

However, while that law accomplished some positive things (e.g., safer DTaP vaccine and VAERS, or the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, being created), since many provisions were at the U.S. health secretary’s discretion and the government paid for compensation, it created a massive incentive to deny that injuries could occur.

As such, many were never implemented. That’s why there’s still little reliable vaccine injury data (as VAERS was systematically undermined), required science linking vaccines to injuries never got done, and it’s nearly impossible for “unsupported” vaccine injuries to be compensated.

Worse still, a 2011 Supreme Court ruling further gutted the act by making it impossible to directly sue vaccine manufacturers.

This birthed a massive industry, as removing the primary check (injury lawsuits) incentivized the production of new vaccines and removed safety incentives.

An apparatus was developed, ensuring investors could expect successful returns by guaranteeing approvals and mandates, with countless dubious vaccines flooding the market (eventually culminating in the COVID-19 catastrophe).

Fortunately, the unrestrained proliferation ultimately went so far that a new check emerged — public loss of trust, Make America Healthy Again’s (MAHA) political ascendency, and RFK Jr. becoming the U.S. health secretary.

The secretary is implementing key safety provisions that every secretary before refused to do.

Note: RFK Jr.’s tenure has crippled the vaccine industry’s ability to obtain investor funding for new vaccines (which is creating an existential threat to the industry).

Monsanto’s legacy

Monsanto (founded in 1901) has long been one of my least favorite corporations, conducting extremely damaging and cruel business practices:

Agent Orange — Monsanto invested heavily in dioxins they knew were toxic but claimed were “safe.” The most notorious was Agent Orange, mass-sprayed on 12% of South Vietnam. This caused at least 400,000 deaths and 500,000 birth defects, with victims left with no recourse.

It also severely harmed Vietnam veterans, eventually resulting in a $180 million settlement (although in numerous cases, veterans who died from it, including close friends of mine, never received a settlement).

Agent Orange’s primary issue was 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) a toxic dioxin produced during manufacturing that contaminated the product. Dow had warned Monsanto about TCDD contamination, but Monsanto used a high-temperature “dirty” process. Ultimately, a roughly 1,000-fold variation was found in Agent Orange’s TCDD content.

Note: I recently learned from an excellent vaccine safety book that the same U.S. agencies and scientists (e.g., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Institute of Medicine) who covered up vaccine injuries also spent decades claiming there was “no evidence” for much of Agent Orange’s toxicity.

For context, a classic symptom of dioxin poisoning frequently seen at these companies was chloracne.

PCBs — Polychlorinated Biphenyls persist for centuries and are highly toxic (causing cancer, immune suppression, reproductive issues and neurological impairments).

Monsanto produced over 99% of America’s PCBs. Despite knowing toxicity as early as the 1930s, Monsanto claimed safety until it stopped sales in 1977.

Eventually, successful PCB lawsuits awarded billions against Monsanto, including 600 million in 2003, 698 million in 2022 and 160 million in 2024 for destroying the environments of communities.

rBGH — In 1993, Monsanto released a synthetic growth hormone ending up in milk. Health concerns suggested cancer, allergy and obesity risks. So Monsanto began an infamous PR campaign that legally intimidated news stations into pulling critical stories and firing journalists who refused to echo (unproven) “safe and effective” claims.

Genetically modified organism (GMO) monopolization — Monsanto created divisions to sue small farmers replanting GMO seeds, maintained FDA revolving doors and locked farmers into poverty cycles, notably causing mass Indian farmer suicides.

Hawaii became popular for GMO cultivation, comprising 92% of agricultural revenue. This required heavy restricted (toxic) pesticide use, causing health effects and community resistance.

Eventually, Kauai banned spraying within 500 feet of schools, Hawaii banned GMO cultivation and Maui’s voters paused GMO cultivation (despite being outspent 87-1). Tragically, Monsanto immediately secured a court ruling that overturned all three of these.

Note: Monsanto also received a $10 million fine for using banned pesticides on Maui and Molokai and a $12 million fine for improperly using restricted pesticides.

Since Monsanto’s cutthroat lawyers repeatedly find ways to escape culpability for their misdeeds, this suggests that giving them additional legal leverage is quite dangerous.

Bayer, Monsanto and glyphosate

Bayer rose to prominence by developing aspirin, selling heroin as a cold remedy and producing chemical weapons. Following this:

“In 1925, Bayer merged with five companies forming IG Farben.

“Following WWII, the Allied Control Council seized IG Farben’s assets due to its Nazi war effort role and Holocaust involvement, including slave labour and human medical testing, and Zyklon B production.

“In 1951, IG Farben split, Bayer was reincorporated. After the war, Bayer re-hired several former Nazis, including convicted war criminals.”

Note: Bayer has engaged in other controversial actions, such as producing contaminated blood products for hemophiliacs and promoting Yaz birth control, causing clots and strokes (resulting in thousands of lawsuits).

In 2018, Bayer acquired Monsanto for $66 billion. When glyphosate was discovered, it was revolutionary because it was significantly less toxic than alternatives. After its introduction in 1974, it occupied a small market portion, but once Monsanto introduced Roundup-resistant crops (Roundup Ready Soybeans in 1995), it rapidly took off.

This excellent business model allowed Monsanto to corner the herbicide market, incentivized farmers to use more Roundup, and generated revenue from GMO seeds — particularly since overuse created resistant weeds requiring even more glyphosate.

Before long, concerns grew about the chemical (e.g., glyphosate likely underlies our widespread magnesium deficiency and hypermobility, while others have linked it to the autism epidemic). Yet, Monsanto continued claiming safety.

RFK Jr., hence, spearheaded many more Roundup cancer lawsuits. There, they obtained industry documents proving Monsanto had doctored science to conceal known risks while selling “safe and effective” Roundup.

This “failure to warn” resulted in massive payouts and many successful lawsuits: 25 million in 2019, $86.7 million in 2019, $175 million in 2023, $611 million in 2023, $400 million in 2024, $78 million in 2025 and $2.1 billion pending appeal.

In turn, as of May 2025, Monsanto settled nearly 100,000 lawsuits paying approximately $11 billion, with roughly 61,000 active lawsuits pending.

This dropped Bayer’s value from $100 billion to $33 billion, making this one of history’s worst merger decisions.

Bayer’s counterattack

In 2023, Bayer hired CEO Bill Anderson, taking aggressive approaches, including:

• Phasing out glyphosate from consumer Roundup, replacing it with formulations more toxic than glyphosate.

• Amassing $16 billion to settle lawsuits (over $10 billion spent).
• Aggressively lobbying for liability shields and funding industry-friendly politicians.
• Petitioning the Supreme Court. After unsuccessful 2022 attempts, this April, Bayer again asked the Court to overturn a Roundup case (and is presently awaiting a response from the Supreme Court).
• Passing state liability shield laws, which passed in Georgia and North Dakota, failed in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Mississippi, are working through Tennessee, Florida, Oklahoma, and passed one chamber in Missouri, North Carolina and Iowa.
• Conducting a vast PR and marketing operation to turn public opinion against these laws.

Failure to warn and FIFRA

Roundup litigation succeeded by focusing on Monsanto’s failure to warn users of glyphosate cancer risks despite having internal evidence that it caused cancer. Bayer’s counter-strategy has been arguing:

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can deem pesticides “safe” and then not require warnings on their label.
• The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) makes EPA requirements trump state requirements.
• So, if the EPA didn’t require specific warnings, companies can’t be liable regardless of state laws or individual injuries. FIFRA suffers major problems:
  • EPA safety determination relies on industry data — if false/misleading, little recourse exists.
  • While FIFRA prohibits withholding/falsifying data, violations are rarely detected or enforced.
  • EPA rarely updates warning labels despite independent findings of pesticide dangers.
  • EPA is only required to reevaluate pesticides every 15 years, taking decades to remove toxic pesticides.
• As such, almost 100 pesticides banned in Europe remain legal in America. Note: Remarkably, the EPA recently reinstated toxic pesticides that courts had ordered removed.

Federal exemptions

Since billions are at stake, considerable effort has gone into developing legal strategies. One involves sneaking last-minute provisions into unrelated bills — in this case, Mike Simpson’s annual funding bill for the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The rider states:

“Sec. 453. None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to issue or adopt any guidance or policy, take any regulatory action, or approve any labeling inconsistent with or different from the conclusion of —

“(a) a human health assessment performed pursuant to FIFRA; or

“(b) a carcinogenicity classification for a pesticide.”

Critical issues with this rider:

• Specifically restricts carcinogenicity classifications for pesticides, likely shielding Bayer.
• Incredibly broad language (“this or any other Act”) easily abused in courts.
• Restricts EPA’s ability to pay for updating toxicity assessments.
• Blocks new findings if FIFRA previously concluded “safety.”
• Broadens FIFRA coverage to restrict state pesticide warnings and usage limits (presently, only state labeling requirements get superseded by FIFRA and overturned in the courts).

Simpson’s rider is a gift for the pesticide industry. Note: At a vote to remove this deceptive rider, Simpson gave an irate defense of it that oddly had no relationship to what was actually in its text.

Toxic sludge

American industry has developed a solution for costly toxic waste disposal: claim it’s healthy and sell it to the public (like fluoride). Since sewage contains nutrients plants need, it became attractive to sell processed sludge to farmers rather than pay immense disposal costs. To sell it, PR firms rebranded sewage sludge as “biosolids.”

Note: Biosolids are heavily contaminated with bacteria (which can cause foodborne illness outbreaks) along with toxic heavy metals, pharmaceutical drugs, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS (persistent fluoride compounds like Teflon), microplastics and chemical pollutants.

PFAS contamination has proven particularly problematic, causing soil to go hundreds of times over legal limits, contaminating neighboring farms and waterways. Many farmers have been forced to close farms, with livestock dying and farmers getting sick.

As making farmland permanently unusable is an existential threat requiring immediate action, requests began for the EPA to evaluate PFAS risks in the 1990s. Eventually, in January 2025, the EPA published an assessment concluding:

“Risks exceed acceptable thresholds for cancer and non-cancer effects (e.g., hepatic, immunological, cardiovascular, and developmental effects) in scenarios involving:

• • Drinking milk from pasture-raised cows on contaminated land
  • Consuming contaminated groundwater/surface water
  • Eating fish from affected lakes
  • Consuming beef/eggs from contaminated pastures
  • Eating fruits/vegetables from sludge-amended soils.”

In June, the sewage industry met with EPA leadership, and shortly after, another (likely illegal) and blatantly corrupt rider appeared in Simpson’s bill:

“Sec. 507. None of the funds may be used to implement, administer, or enforce the [PFAS] draft risk assessment … published January 15, 2025.”

MAHA and political shifts

Prior to President Barack Obama, I generally identified as a Democrat and hence was shocked at how things flipped during Obama’s presidency (e.g., the party becoming devoted to the pharmaceutical industry and the military industrial complex).

As such, when childhood vaccine mandates swept the nation (starting with California in 2015), Democrats essentially ignored distraught witnesses while Republicans eventually listened to constituents, resulting in virtually every Democrat voting for the mandates and every Republican opposing them.

Since much of the progressive base identifies with natural health, the pharmaceutical shift made many “politically homeless.” President Donald Trump used this disenfranchisement to win 2024 by agreeing to advance their agenda through empowering RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again.

Remarkably, on pesticides, allegiances have flipped — Democrats all voted against the pesticide industry while most Republicans have favored liability freedom.

Likewise, one pro-vaccine senator (Democrat Cory Booker) introduced legislation significantly increasing pesticide manufacturers’ lawsuit liability (setting the stage to steal Making America Healthy from Trump’s party).

Most recently, MAHA attempted to stop the “glyphosate” rider through representatives and committee votes — but failed due to a Republican majority. The vote was done by unrecorded roll call (protecting its supporters from MAHA backlash). It appeared to have had near-unanimous Democratic support, while almost every Republican favored protecting the pesticide industry.

Conclusion

Providing liability shields incentivizes a race to the bottom for product safety. When penalties for harming the public are removed, the public is practically begging to be harmed.

While these riders are terrible, what is even more alarming is their broader implications, such as decades of environmental work being undone, and it is now becoming impossible to take dangerous pesticides off the market (or even to warn farm workers about their dangers). As such, when people learn of them, they are horrified and reject them.

In February, the Idaho Conservation League released survey results from Idaho, Iowa and Missouri residents. 90% of Idahoans opposed pesticide bills. “It was overwhelming to the point that the polling firm said they had never seen numbers this high.”

As such, it is critical to bring awareness to this issue so that the deceptively crafted rider cannot hide in the background and become coded into law. Likewise, please consider contacting your representatives (here) and senators (here) about H.R.4754 and demanding the removal of sections 453 and 507.

Note: I suspect solving this problem will also ultimately require developing safer alternatives to glyphosate. Likewise, it’s critical to remember that MAHA has much less influence in the U.S. Department of Agriculture than the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

My fear is that Trump may repeat his 2020 mistake (stating during the campaign he had major concerns about vaccines, then abandoning that project and helping to birth one of the most devastating vaccines in history during COVID-19.

This time around, he ran on MAHA and clearing up what’s sprayed on our food, but should these riders pass the incentives to produce “safer pesticides” (e.g., avoiding being sued) will disappear, it will likely usher in a deluge of dangerous pesticides.

In short, there’s darkness behind these seemingly innocuous provisions. Fortunately, we exist in an era where things are malleable and we can overturn corrupt, previously unchallengeable policies — provided we make our voices heard.

I’m grateful for the work each of you has done throughout the last four years, making this shift possible, and for what we will accomplish together over the next four.

A note from Dr. Mercola about the author

A Midwestern Doctor (AMD) is a board-certified physician from the Midwest and a longtime reader of Mercola.com. I appreciate AMD’s exceptional insight on a wide range of topics and am grateful to share it.

I also respect AMD’s desire to remain anonymous since AMD is still on the front lines treating patients. To find more of AMD’s work, be sure to check out The Forgotten Side of Medicine on Substack.

Originally published by Dr. Joseph Mercola.