More than 18,000 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against Bayer, which owns Monsanto, over the allegedly cancer-causing weedkiller product Roundup. However, the dangers of Roundup are not the only thing that a Monsanto Roundup lawsuit can shed light upon—indeed, the company’s approach to public relations is now also being examined.

For instance, the biotechnology company allegedly made a coordinated push to fight back against negative publicity by purposely discrediting journalists and activists that criticized it, as well as influencing online search engine results, according to evidence cited in some of the lawsuits against the company.

Some of these documents have been made publicly available by lawyers handling a pile of anti-Roundup litigation.

According to the St. Louis Dispatch, Carey Gillam, a former journalist for Reuters who is now the research director for US Right to Know—which is “a non-profit investigative research group focused on the food industry,” according to its website—recently published a book called Whitewash that examined the evidence about glyphosate’s risks.

However, she was allegedly targeted by a campaign to discredit her and minimize her media coverage.

Indeed, the campaign against Gillam allegedly involved paying for blog posts to appear on Google search terms like “Monsanto Glyphosate Carey Gillam.” Third parties were also reportedly instructed to post negative or critical reviews of the book, internal Monsanto documents show.

Gillam said in an article for The Guardian that the Monsanto’s strategy to undermine her findings on glyphosate shocked her.

“I’m just one person, just one reporter working from a home office in the midwest, juggling three kids with irregular writing deadlines,” Gillam wrote. “So the knowledge that a multibillion-dollar corporation spent so much time and attention trying to figure out how to thwart me is terrifying.”

Just this last May, according to a Reuters report, Bayer admitted that Monsanto had worked together with a contracted PR firm to gather the nonpublic information of journalists, politicians, and others across Europe as part of its campaign to influence public perception of pesticides and genetic modification.

According to reports, internal Monsanto documents aren’t limited to their action plans for campaigning to discredit certain people influential in the Roundup debate, like Gillam. Some emails are much more aggressive, like an email in which a Monsanto executive allegedly saying harsh words about the Moms Across America advocacy group due to its concerns about Roundup cancer. These emails were also released as part of the ongoing Roundup litigation.

“When corporate power is so intensely brought to silence messengers to manipulate the public record and public opinion, truth becomes stifled,” Gillam wrote in her article for The Guardian. “And we should all be afraid.”

Filing a Monsanto Roundup Lawsuit

If you or someone you love have suffered from Roundup cancer, you may be able to file a lawsuit and pursue compensation. Filing a Monsanto Roundup lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering caused by cancer, nor can it bring a loved one back to life, but it can at least help to alleviate the financial burden incurred by medical expenses, lost wages, and more.

If you or a loved one developed cancer after using Roundup as a farm worker or home gardener, you may have a legal claim. Legal migrant farm workers may also seek help. Learn more by filling out the form on this page for a FREE case evaluation.

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