Comment Re:This case is not 'Does RoundUp Cause Cancer' (Score 1) 66
My $0.02 is it does cause cancer. But that's not what this case is about.
If it does cause cancer, it would have to be a very weak cause -- otherwise, the many studies done would clearly show it.
In any event, that kind of *is* what this case is about -- there's not really any significant evidence that RoundUp does cause cancer (at best, it's a *maybe*), and that sort of evidence is found in scientific studies, not in courtrooms.
But that lack of evidence won't stop the lawsuits -- sure, it makes the lawsuits weaker, but every person with cancer is a potential lawsuit against Monsanto, and juries don't necessarily *need* evidence that RoundUp causes cancer -- instead, an expert witness gets up there and tells them it's possible, and they think of the big faceless corporation and the person dying of cancer and their heartstrings make a decision rather than the evidence.
Monsanto may be a $15B/year company, but even that's not enough to pay all the people who accuse it of causing their cancers. And yet RoundUp is a vitally important tool for farmers worldwide, often used instead of nastier pesticides *known* to cause cancer -- even if it was found to cause cancer, it's so important to agriculture worldwide that we'd probably keep on using it.