Monsanto aware of damage crop systems would cause US farms

US agriculture company Monsanto and German chemical company BASF were aware of the damage that their agricultural seed and chemical system could inflict on US farms.

According to documents seen by the Guardian, both companies knew of the dangers but risks were downplayed while they planned how to profit from farmers who would buy Monsanto’s new seeds just to avoid damage.

The documents, which were unearthed during a recent successful $265m lawsuit brought against both firms by a Missouri farmer, also revealed how Monsanto opposed some third-party product testing.

The new crop system developed by Monsanto and BASF, best known as Roundup, was designed to address weeds resistant to Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weedkillers. Both companies brought out a different herbicide called dicamba.

In 2011, the two companies said they would make new dicamba formulations that would stay where they were sprayed and would not volatilize as older versions of dicamba were believed to do.

But in private meetings dating back to 2009, records show agricultural experts warned that the plan to develop a dicamba-tolerant system could have catastrophic consequences, including impacting crops growing in other farms that were not dicamba-tolerant seeds.

A 2015 document shows that Monsanto’s own projections estimated that dicamba damage claims from farmers would total more than 10,000 cases, including 1,305 in 2016, 2,765 in 2017 and 3,259 in 2018.

Several million acres of crops have now been reported damaged by dicamba, according to industry estimates seen by the Guardian.

The documents show that both companies were excited about the profit potential of the new system. BASF projected its new dicamba herbicide would be a “$400m brand in two years”, with sales by May 2017 exceeding $131m and a gross profit of 45%.