When the pharmaceutical company Bayer bought Monsanto last year, it inherited the weed killer Roundup. It also inherited thousands of lawsuits claiming the chemical’s active ingredient — glyphosate — can be linked to a form of cancer. But farmers have used more and more glyphosate over the last 20 years to keep weeds in check, and have a lot riding on its future. For Harvest Public Media and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, Christopher Walljasper explains what’s at stake.
Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on agricultural and rural issues throughout the Midwest. For more stories and more information, visit harvestpublicmedia.org.